Assurance

One of the five Security Goals. It involves support for our confidence that the other four security goals (integrity, availability, confidentiality, and accountability) have been adequately met by a specific implementation. Adequately met includes (1) functionality that performs correctly, (2) sufficient protection against unintentional errors (by users or software), and (3) sufficient resistance to intentional penetration or by-pass.

1. Grounds for confidence that an information-technology (IT) product or system meets its security objectives. 2. In INFOSEC, see information assurance. 3. A more general term than "confidence" indicating the particular measures that can be taken to establish confidence [CESG]. 4. The confidence that may be held in the security provided by a Target of Evaluation [ITSEC].