3 - CIA Triad

Data Security

The CIA Triad & Parkerian Hexad
  • Confidentiality: Protects sensitive data from unauthorized access.
  • Integrity: Ensures data remains unmodified and consistent.
  • Availability: Guarantees data is accessible to authorized users at all times.
  • Possession: Concerns control over data within an organization.
  • Authenticity: Verifies ownership of the data, often through digital signatures.
  • Utility: Ensures data is usable and maintains its formatting.
Confidentiality
  • Purpose: Protects against unauthorized data access (intentional or accidental).
  • Methods:
    • Encryption: Encodes data to prevent unauthorized access.
    • Access Control: Manages who can access and share data.
Encryption

  • BitLocker:

    • Utilizes a recovery key for access.
    • Secures file operations through encryption using XTS-AES 128-bit.

  • Types of Encryption:

    • Symmetric Encryption: Involves one key for both encryption and decryption (e.g., AES). Fast but risks key exposure.
    • Asymmetric Encryption: Uses a pair of keys—public and private (e.g., RSA). Public key is shared openly, while private key remains secure.
Benefits of Encryption
  • Privacy: Only intended recipients can read the messages.
  • Regulatory Compliance: Adheres to laws like HIPAA, PCI-DSS, GDPR.
  • Security: Protects against data breaches, maintaining confidentiality even if data is stolen.
Common Algorithms
  • AES (Advanced Encryption Standard): Government-backed, widely regarded for its strength.
  • Triple DES: An improvement over DES, encrypts each block three times for security.
  • RSA: A standard for internet data encryption.
  • Blowfish: Flexible and fast encryption algorithm.
  • Twofish: Successor to Blowfish, known for its speed and efficiency.
Integrity
  • Purpose: Prevents unauthorized modifications to data.
  • Hashing:
    • A unique identifier for data, ensuring consistency.
    • Used to detect changes—mismatched hash means altered data.
Applications of Hashing
  • Secure password storage.
  • Digital signatures for emails and documents.
  • Found in SSL/TLS certificates, code signing, etc.
Availability
  • Ensures uninterrupted access to data for authorized users.
Strategies to Enhance Availability

  • Load Balancing: Distributes workloads across multiple servers, enhancing performance and availability.

  • Redundancy (Clustering):

    • Involves duplicating systems to prevent failures.
    • Failover systems automatically switch to backup systems when a fault is detected.

  • Fault Tolerance: Designs systems to maintain operation despite component failures, often through redundancy.

  • RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks): Improves data redundancy, with multiple disk configurations (e.g., RAID 0, RAID 1).

  • Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS): Ensures power supply continuity for servers/workstations during outages.

  • Disaster Recovery (DR) Plans: Strategies for restoring services quickly post-disaster to minimize impact on the organization.