Network Defense Essentials (NDE) Practice Exam

What type of security measure is employed to avoid unauthorized data tampering?

1. Encryption

2. Access controls

3. Intrusion detection

4. Backups

The correct answer is: Encryption

Encryption plays a crucial role in safeguarding data integrity by ensuring that unauthorized personnel cannot alter or tamper with the information. When data is encrypted, it is transformed into a coded format that requires a specific key or password for access. This means that even if someone intercepts the data, they cannot easily modify it without the appropriate key. The primary function of encryption is to protect the confidentiality of information, but it also indirectly helps prevent unauthorized manipulation. By making the data unreadable and unusable without decryption, encryption serves as a robust barrier against tampering attempts. In the context of the other choices, access controls focus on restricting who has permission to view or alter information, intrusion detection aims to identify suspicious activities within a network, and backups are essential for recovering data after a loss or corruption but do not directly prevent tampering. Thus, employing encryption is a direct security measure specifically designed to maintain the integrity and authenticity of data against unauthorized alterations.