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CIA Triad

11/09/2025

Author: Stuart Barker | ISO 27001 Expert and Thought Leader

CIA Triad Definition - ISO 27001 Glossary

The CIA Triad is a fundamental model for information security, defining the three core principles that an organisation’s Information Security Management System (ISMS) aims to protect: Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability.

  • Confidentiality: Ensuring that information is accessible only to those who are authorised to have it. This prevents unauthorised disclosure of sensitive data.
    • Example: Using encryption to protect customer data.
  • Integrity: Maintaining the accuracy and completeness of information. It ensures that data has not been altered or corrupted in an unauthorised manner.
    • Example: Using checksums to verify that a file has not been tampered with.
  • Availability: Ensuring that information and associated systems are accessible and usable when needed by authorised users. This principle focuses on uptime and reliability.
    • Example: Implementing a robust backup and recovery plan to restore services after a system failure.

ISO 27001 Context

The ISO 27001 standard and its controls are directly built around protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of an organisation’s information assets. The CIA Triad provides the conceptual framework for managing information security risks and is implicitly referenced throughout the standard.

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Stuart Barker, ISO 27001 expert

Stuart Barker
ISO 27001 Expert and Thought Leader

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Stuart Barker, ISO 27001 expert

About the author

Stuart Barker is an information security practitioner of over 30 years. He holds an MSc in Software and Systems Security and an undergraduate degree in Software Engineering. He is an ISO 27001 expert and thought leader holding both ISO 27001 Lead Implementer and ISO 27001 Lead Auditor qualifications. In 2010 he started his first cyber security consulting business that he sold in 2018. He worked for over a decade for GE, leading a data governance team across Europe and since then has gone on to deliver hundreds of client engagements and audits.

He regularly mentors and trains professionals on information security and runs a successful ISO 27001 YouTube channel where he shows people how they can implement ISO 27001 themselves. He is passionate that knowledge should not be hoarded and brought to market the first of its kind online ISO 27001 store for all the tools and templates people need when they want to do it themselves.

In his personal life he is an active and a hobbyist kickboxer.

His specialisms are ISO 27001 and SOC 2 and his niche is start up and early stage business.