thinQmaster Virtual testing partner Adaptive practice exams that find your weak spots and drill them. Every answer explained. From $69
Enroll

thinQmaster

Find your exam

Five questions free, before you decide.

Step 1 · choose a vendor

In one of our camps? Your practice exams come with the tuition — they are on your study page already.

Security Fundamentals & Crypto · Foundational

DAD Triad

The opposite of the CIA triad: disclosure, alteration, and destruction (denial) of information.

Definition

The DAD triad describes the three ways security fails. Disclosure violates confidentiality, alteration violates integrity, and destruction or denial violates availability. It is useful for classifying the impact of an incident.

Example

Ransomware that encrypts files and also leaks them causes both destruction (denial) and disclosure.

Exam tip

Map each DAD element to its CIA counterpart: disclosure-confidentiality, alteration-integrity, destruction-availability.

Related terms