Fortify Your Cyber Fortress: Conquer the 2026 NDE Practice Exam! 🚀🔐

The principle that ensures information is not modified or tampered with by unauthorized parties is integrity. Integrity involves maintaining the accuracy and reliability of data throughout its lifecycle. It ensures that any unauthorized changes to data can be detected and that original data remains unchanged unless permitted actions are taken by authorized users.

When integrity is upheld, it means that whenever data is accessed or transmitted, it can be verified that the data has not been altered inappropriately. This is fundamental in various contexts, such as in database management, file storage, and network communications, where maintaining the correct state of data is critical for system functionality and trustworthiness.

Other concepts, while related to information security, focus on different aspects. Confidentiality pertains to the protection of data from unauthorized access, ensuring that sensitive information is only accessible to those authorized to view it. Availability refers to ensuring that data and resources are accessible to authorized users when needed. Authentication is the process of verifying the identity of users or systems. While all these factors are essential for a comprehensive security strategy, the specific focus of integrity is on preventing unauthorized modifications to data.