In our daily life, integrity refers to honesty, loyalty, principles and moral. For many of us, before having faith in someone or even something, we need to understand that the person or object will be good for us and will share the same principles than us.
Integrity (noun) /ɪnˈteɡ.rə.ti/ “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles that you refuse to change” – Cambridge Dictionary
In the digital world, precisely in security, the concept of “data integrity is also important.
According to TechTarget, data integrity “involves maintaining the consistency, accuracy, and trustworthiness of data over its entire life cycle”. In over terms, data (of a database, an application, a site or back up) must stay unchanged or uncorrupted by anyone who doesn’t have the right, like a hacker.
Why is it relevant to control data integrity?
If a data is changed by a third person (with no right on it), a data breach can be easily provoked.
Through integrity, data has to be trustworthy. Its main objective is to make sure that a data will stay undamaged its all life cycle and will be the same where ever it can be not to cause any disturbance to information.
Moreover, integrity is part of what is called the “CIA triad” of security: Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability. It aims at protecting the information of organisations. Together those three concepts are essential to ensure the security of data for business processes. As stated in TechTarget, within the security of information “confidentiality is a set of rules that limits access to information, integrity is the assurance that the information is trustworthy and accurate, and availability is a guarantee of reliable access to the information by authorized people.”
You can have further information about the concept of CIA triad through this video: https://youtu.be/11_Hp5Dvx5E
The security of data is more and more important for individuals and business with the digitalisation of things and the innumerous devices that are connected. The European project IOTnuggets aim to “prepare experts in data and security protection within the IoT ecosystem“. The project has developed a framework which covers 4 security areas such as integrity! You can have further information on http://iotnuggets.unibit.bg/.
- https://dictionary.cambridge.org/fr/dictionnaire/anglais/integrity
- https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Confidentiality-integrity-and-availability-CIA
- https://digitalguardian.com/blog/what-data-integrity-data-protection-101
- https://www.cyberark.com/blog/cyber-security-dont-ignore-data-integrity/