Providing security to the information assets of our modern age has become a matter of supreme importance. The three main goals associated with security are:

a) Confidentiality:

• It is a common aspect of information security. We need to protect our confidential information from getting leaked into public.
• For e.g. in military, confidentiality is related to national security. In business, certain information always needs to be hidden from competitors.
• It applies to both the storage of information as well as for transmission of information.

b) Integrity:

• In information security, integrity means maintaining and assuring accuracy and completion of data over its entire life-cycle.
• It means that changes can be done only by authorized entities and only through authorized mechanism.
• Securing integrity of data is extremely important. E.g. You are sending Rs. 1,000. Somebody tampers with the integrity of transactions and actually sends Rs. 1,00,000.
• Data can also be lost due to due to natural reasons like power outage, floods etc.

c) Availability:

• Availability of information refers to ensuring that authorized entities get information when needed.
• An information which is stored and maintained is useless if it’s not available when needed.
• Denying access to the information has become a popular mode of cyber-attack. E.g. DDos (Distributed Denial of Service)

Mechanisms to achieve the above goals are: