Network Defense Essentials (NDE) Practice Exam 2025 – Your All-in-One Resource to Exam Success!

Integrity is a key objective of cryptography that ensures the trustworthiness of data. It guarantees that the information remains unaltered and authentic from the moment it is created until it is accessed or transmitted to the intended party. When integrity is maintained, any unauthorized alterations or tampering with the data can be detected, allowing the recipient to verify that the information has not been compromised during storage or transit.

In the context of cryptography, various techniques, such as hash functions and digital signatures, are employed to ensure data integrity. These methods provide a means to check that the content has not been changed. Therefore, when data integrity is assured, users can trust that the information they receive is accurate and reliable.

The other objectives, while also important in the scope of cryptography, serve different purposes. Confidentiality focuses on keeping data secret from unauthorized viewers, authentication verifies the identity of users or systems, and authorization determines the permissions granted to authenticated entities. Each plays a unique role in the overall security framework, but integrity specifically addresses the issue of data trustworthiness.