Data integrity is a promise or assurance that information can be accessed or modified only by authorised users.

While data integrity breaches are not new, 2017 is predicted to be the year such breaches will send shockwaves throughout the world as the ultimate weaponisation of data.

Data integrity attacks compromise that promise, with the aim of gaining unauthorised access to modify data for a number of ulterior motives, such as financial or reputational.

Impact of data integrity attacks

We are now starting to see more evidence that the stolen data is being altered before transition, effecting all elements of operations.

Data integrity attacks have the power to bring down an entire company and more. Entire stock markets could be poisoned and collapsed by faulty data. The power grid and other IoT systems, from traffic lights to the water supply, could be severely disrupted if the data they run on were to be altered. And perhaps the greatest danger is that many of these could go undetected for years before the true damage reveals itself.

According one prediction, criminals will seek to sow confusion and doubt over the accuracy and reliability of information, impairing decision making across the private and public sector in 2017.

Organisations therefore need to be continually and proactively assessing their networks to understand how they are compromised: focusing not just on the ‘known’ bad but also trying to understand the threat of the ‘unknown'.