WGU D488 CYBERSECURITY ARCHITECTURE
AND ENGINEERING OA 2026 COMPLETE
CYBERSECURITY FRAMEWORKS AND
ARCHITECTURE STUDY GUIDE
◉ Parkerian hexad.
Answer: Where the CIA triad consists of confidentiality, integrity,
and availability, the Parkerian hexad consists of these three
principles, as well as possession or control, authenticity, and utility
◉ Confidentiality.
Answer: Refers to our ability to protect our data from those who are
not authorized to view it.
Confidentiality can be compromised by the loss of a laptop
containing data, a person looking over our shoulder while we type a
password, an e-mail attachment being sent to the wrong person, an
attacker penetrating our systems, or similar issues.
◉ Integrity.
Answer: Refers to the ability to prevent our data from being changed
in an unauthorized or undesirable manner. This could mean the
unauthorized change or deletion of our data or portions of our data,
,or it could mean an authorized, but undesirable, change or deletion
of our data. To maintain integrity, we not only need to have the
means to prevent unauthorized changes to our data but also need
the ability to reverse authorized changes that need to be undone.
◉ Availability.
Answer: refers to the ability to access our data when we need it.
Loss of availability can refer to a wide variety of breaks anywhere in
the chain that allows us access to our data. Such issues can result
from power loss, operating system or application problems, network
attacks, compromise of a system, or other problems. When such
issues are caused by an outside party, such as an attacker, they are
commonly referred to as a denial of service (DoS) attack.
◉ Possession or Control.
Answer: Refers to the physical disposition of the media on which the
data is stored. This enables us, without involving other factors such
as availability, to discuss our loss of the data in its physical medium
An example is data store be on multiple devices and there could be
numerous versions.
◉ Authenticity.
Answer: Attribution as to the owner or creator of the data in
question.
,Authenticity can be enforced through the use of digital signatures.
◉ Utility.
Answer: Refers to how useful the data is to us.
◉ Interception.
Answer: Interception attacks allow unauthorized users to access our
data, applications, or environments and are primarily an attack
against confidentiality. Interception might take the form of
unauthorized file viewing or copying, eavesdropping on phone
conversations, or reading e-mail, and can be conducted against data
at rest or in motion. Properly executed, interception attacks can be
very difficult to detect.
Affects Confidentiality
◉ Interruption.
Answer: Interruption attacks cause our assets to become unusable
or unavailable for our use, on a temporary or permanent basis.
Interruption attacks often affect availability but can be an attack on
integrity as well. In the case of a DoS attack on a mail server, we
would classify this as an availability attack.
, Affects Integrity and availability
◉ Modification.
Answer: Modification attacks involve tampering with our asset. If we
access a file in an unauthorized manner and alter the data it
contains, we have affected the integrity of the data contained in the
file.
◉ Fabrication.
Answer: Fabrication attacks involve generating data, processes,
communications, or other similar activities with a system.
Fabrication attacks primarily affect integrity but could be
considered an availability attack as well. If we generate spurious
information in a database, this would be considered to be a
fabrication attack.
Affects Integrity and Availability
◉ Threat.
Answer: Something that has potential to cause harm
◉ Vulnerability.
Answer: Weaknesses that can be used to harm us
AND ENGINEERING OA 2026 COMPLETE
CYBERSECURITY FRAMEWORKS AND
ARCHITECTURE STUDY GUIDE
◉ Parkerian hexad.
Answer: Where the CIA triad consists of confidentiality, integrity,
and availability, the Parkerian hexad consists of these three
principles, as well as possession or control, authenticity, and utility
◉ Confidentiality.
Answer: Refers to our ability to protect our data from those who are
not authorized to view it.
Confidentiality can be compromised by the loss of a laptop
containing data, a person looking over our shoulder while we type a
password, an e-mail attachment being sent to the wrong person, an
attacker penetrating our systems, or similar issues.
◉ Integrity.
Answer: Refers to the ability to prevent our data from being changed
in an unauthorized or undesirable manner. This could mean the
unauthorized change or deletion of our data or portions of our data,
,or it could mean an authorized, but undesirable, change or deletion
of our data. To maintain integrity, we not only need to have the
means to prevent unauthorized changes to our data but also need
the ability to reverse authorized changes that need to be undone.
◉ Availability.
Answer: refers to the ability to access our data when we need it.
Loss of availability can refer to a wide variety of breaks anywhere in
the chain that allows us access to our data. Such issues can result
from power loss, operating system or application problems, network
attacks, compromise of a system, or other problems. When such
issues are caused by an outside party, such as an attacker, they are
commonly referred to as a denial of service (DoS) attack.
◉ Possession or Control.
Answer: Refers to the physical disposition of the media on which the
data is stored. This enables us, without involving other factors such
as availability, to discuss our loss of the data in its physical medium
An example is data store be on multiple devices and there could be
numerous versions.
◉ Authenticity.
Answer: Attribution as to the owner or creator of the data in
question.
,Authenticity can be enforced through the use of digital signatures.
◉ Utility.
Answer: Refers to how useful the data is to us.
◉ Interception.
Answer: Interception attacks allow unauthorized users to access our
data, applications, or environments and are primarily an attack
against confidentiality. Interception might take the form of
unauthorized file viewing or copying, eavesdropping on phone
conversations, or reading e-mail, and can be conducted against data
at rest or in motion. Properly executed, interception attacks can be
very difficult to detect.
Affects Confidentiality
◉ Interruption.
Answer: Interruption attacks cause our assets to become unusable
or unavailable for our use, on a temporary or permanent basis.
Interruption attacks often affect availability but can be an attack on
integrity as well. In the case of a DoS attack on a mail server, we
would classify this as an availability attack.
, Affects Integrity and availability
◉ Modification.
Answer: Modification attacks involve tampering with our asset. If we
access a file in an unauthorized manner and alter the data it
contains, we have affected the integrity of the data contained in the
file.
◉ Fabrication.
Answer: Fabrication attacks involve generating data, processes,
communications, or other similar activities with a system.
Fabrication attacks primarily affect integrity but could be
considered an availability attack as well. If we generate spurious
information in a database, this would be considered to be a
fabrication attack.
Affects Integrity and Availability
◉ Threat.
Answer: Something that has potential to cause harm
◉ Vulnerability.
Answer: Weaknesses that can be used to harm us
