CIA Rating

📘 CIA Rating in ASPM

🔐 Overview: What Is the CIA Rating?

The CIA Rating is a foundational framework used to evaluate the security posture of digital assets, based on three critical dimensions:

• Confidentiality: Protection against unauthorized access to sensitive information.

• Integrity: Assurance that information remains accurate, consistent, and unaltered.

• Availability: Assurance that systems and data are accessible when needed.

These three pillars help organizations systematically assess and quantify security risks, especially for applications and systems that support essential business operations.

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🧭 Why Is CIA Important in ASPM?

In Application Security Posture Management (ASPM), the CIA Rating enables:

• Risk-based prioritization of remediation and controls

• Business-aligned security assessments that go beyond technical vulnerabilities

• Continuous visibility into how application risks may impact compliance, operations, or reputation

• Automated scoring and governance, enabling standardization across complex environments

By embedding CIA assessments into your application modeling, teams can quantify risk exposure, align controls to business criticality, and drive more informed decisions in vulnerability management and investment.

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🔍 Element Types and Their Role in CIA Rating

Each CIA dimension is implemented as an Element Type in the KScope Asset Registry. Below are descriptions, significance in ASPM, and structured attribute schemas for each:

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🔐 1. Confidentiality

📖 Description:

Assesses whether a digital asset safeguards sensitive data, including personal, financial, and classified business information. It also evaluates the presence of technical and organizational controls like encryption, vendor access, and compliance obligations.

🎯 Significance in ASPM:

Helps prioritize assets handling highly sensitive or regulated data for increased monitoring, protection, and audit focus.

🧾 Schema Table:

Attribute	Data Type	Description
data_classification	String	Classification level of data (e.g., Confidential, Internal)
user_base_size	String	Approximate number of users served (e.g., <100, 100–1000, >5000)
stores_personal_data	Boolean	Indicates if personal data (PII) is stored or processed
stores_sensitive_business_data	Boolean	Indicates if sensitive commercial/IP/financial data is processed
uses_encryption	Boolean	Indicates use of encryption (at rest / in transit)
third_party_access	Boolean	Indicates if third-party vendors have access to the asset
compliance_standards	String/List	Lists regulatory frameworks applied (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA)
access_review_frequency*	String (Optional)	Frequency of access control reviews
notes	Text	Free-text for comments or context
created_at, updated_at	Timestamp	Record timestamps

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🛠 2. Integrity

📖 Description:

Assesses the ability of a system to maintain data accuracy, reliability, and traceability — especially in the face of integrations, user actions, or system changes.

🎯 Significance in ASPM:

Ensures that applications with critical business logic or many data flows are protected against corruption, tampering, or unintentional errors.

🧾 Schema Table:

Attribute	Data Type	Description
recovery_point_objective	String	Tolerable data loss time window (e.g., "0–4 hrs", "13–24 hrs")
code_customization_level	String	Degree of source code modification (e.g., Low, Medium, High)
integration_points_count	Integer	Number of integrations (APIs, interfaces, service accounts)
data_validation_enabled	Boolean	Whether input/processing validation is implemented
audit_logging_enabled	Boolean	Indicates use of audit/version tracking for data changes
reconciliation_process_exists	Boolean	Indicates if reconciliation mechanisms are in place
data_sync_mechanism	String	Describes how data is synchronized across environments (e.g., Real-time, Batch)
notes	Text	Additional comments or justifications
created_at, updated_at	Timestamp	Record timestamps

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⏱ 3. Availability

📖 Description:

Assesses how well a digital asset ensures uptime and resilience — especially under failure conditions — and evaluates the maturity of disaster recovery and infrastructure support.

🎯 Significance in ASPM:

Helps identify mission-critical systems that require high availability, rapid recovery, and strong infrastructure redundancy.

🧾 Schema Table:

Attribute	Data Type	Description
recovery_time_objective	String	Acceptable downtime duration (e.g., “0–4 Hours”)
sla_uptime_percentage	Decimal	Expected monthly uptime percentage (e.g., 99.9)
sla_downtime_minutes	Integer	Approximate downtime per month in minutes (e.g., 43)
dependency_scope	String	Organizational dependency level (e.g., "Enterprise-wide", "Local only")
high_availability_enabled	Boolean	Whether HA configurations like failover are implemented
resilient_infrastructure	Boolean	Indicates resilient hosting (e.g., multi-region cloud, Tier 3+ data center)
disaster_recovery_plan_exists	Boolean	Whether a formal DR or business continuity plan is in place
availability_monitoring_enabled	Boolean	Whether availability and alerting mechanisms are in place
notes	Text	Additional context or explanation
created_at, updated_at	Timestamp	Record timestamps

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📊 CIA Rating Scoring (Optional for Advanced Users)

Each CIA component can be scored on a 1–5 scale, and then mapped to a letter grade (A–F), using weighted formulas and thresholds. This enables:

• Quantitative risk profiling

• Visual CIA dashboards

• Policy-based prioritization

Example scoring output:

CIA Component	Score (1–5)	Mapped Rating (A–F)
Confidentiality	3.0	C
Integrity	2.3	D
Availability	4.7	A

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