Security Mechanisms for Confidentiality

To ensure information confidentiality, several key security mechanisms can be applied:

• Encryption: This mechanism transforms information into an unreadable format, known as ciphertext, making it unintelligible to unauthorized individuals. Only those with the correct decryption key can revert the ciphertext to its original, readable form. An example is using AES-256 to encrypt sensitive data before transmission or storage.
• Access Control: This mechanism restricts access to information based on predefined rules and permissions. It ensures that only authorized users, programs, or processes can access specific resources. Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), for instance, assigns permissions based on a user's role within an organization.
• Steganography: Unlike encryption, which scrambles data, steganography hides the existence of information within other, seemingly innocuous, data such as images, audio files, or video. The hidden message is imperceptible without knowledge of its presence and the method used to conceal it.
• Traffic Padding: In network communication, traffic padding involves generating spurious messages or adding random data to obscure the actual volume and patterns of legitimate data traffic. This makes it difficult for an attacker to analyze traffic flow and infer sensitive information, even if the content itself is encrypted.

These mechanisms are detailed in sources such as Guide to Computer Network Security by Joseph Migga Kizza, particularly in discussions on confidentiality services and mechanisms. See https://books.google.com.gh/books?id=sbA_AAAAQBAJ for more information.