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What does the integrity principle in information assurance primarily focus on?
Ensuring data is available when needed
Protecting data from unauthorized access
Maintaining the accuracy and consistency of data
Verifying the identity of users
The correct answer is: Maintaining the accuracy and consistency of data
The integrity principle in information assurance is centered around maintaining the accuracy and consistency of data throughout its lifecycle. This principle ensures that data remains unaltered and authentic, thereby enabling users to trust that the information they are accessing is the same as it was at the time of creation or last authorized modification. Data integrity is crucial in various contexts, such as financial transactions, health records, and personal data, as any alteration could lead to misinformation or errors that can have serious consequences. Techniques to ensure data integrity include hashing, checksums, and digital signatures, which help detect any unauthorized changes or corruption of data over time. While availability, confidentiality, and user verification are essential components of information assurance, they address different aspects of security. Availability focuses on ensuring that data can be accessed when needed, while confidentiality deals with restrictions on data access. User verification involves validating identities to prevent unauthorized access, but these concepts do not directly pertain to the preservation of data's accuracy and consistency.