WGU C836 OA Study Guide
1. CIA Triad: Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability
2. Parkerian hexad: 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
3. Confidentiality: 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.
4. Integrity: 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.
5. Availability: 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.
6. Possession or Control: 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.
7. Authenticity: Attribution as to the owner or creator of the data in question.
Authenticity can be enforced through the use of digital signatures.
8. Utility: Refers to how useful the data is to us.
9. Interception: 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, eaves-
, dropping 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
10. Interruption: 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
11. Modification: 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.
12. Fabrication: Fabrication attacks involve generating data, processes, commu-
nications, 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
13. Threat: Something that has potential to cause harm
14. Vulnerability: Weaknesses that can be used to harm us
15. Risk: Likeliness that something bad will happen
16. Impact: The value of the asset is used to assess if a risk is present
1. CIA Triad: Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability
2. Parkerian hexad: 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
3. Confidentiality: 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.
4. Integrity: 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.
5. Availability: 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.
6. Possession or Control: 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.
7. Authenticity: Attribution as to the owner or creator of the data in question.
Authenticity can be enforced through the use of digital signatures.
8. Utility: Refers to how useful the data is to us.
9. Interception: 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, eaves-
, dropping 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
10. Interruption: 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
11. Modification: 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.
12. Fabrication: Fabrication attacks involve generating data, processes, commu-
nications, 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
13. Threat: Something that has potential to cause harm
14. Vulnerability: Weaknesses that can be used to harm us
15. Risk: Likeliness that something bad will happen
16. Impact: The value of the asset is used to assess if a risk is present
