Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) Practice Exam

The concept of integrity is crucial in information security, particularly when it comes to maintaining the correctness and reliability of data during its transmission. Specifically, integrity ensures that the data has not been altered or tampered with during its transit from one point to another. In the context of financial transactions, if integrity is upheld, any changes made to the transaction data while it is being sent across networks can be detected. This is typically achieved through the use of hashing algorithms and checksums, which allow for the verification of data before and after transmission. When integrity is compromised, it poses significant risks, especially in financial scenarios where altered information can lead to fraudulent activities or erroneous processing of transactions. Therefore, maintaining integrity is essential for the security of financial transactions, ensuring that all parties can trust that the data they receive is exactly what was sent. The other terms relate to different aspects of information security. Authentication verifies the identity of the parties involved, authorization determines what a user can do, and non-repudiation ensures that a sender cannot deny sending a message. Each plays an important role in the broader context of security, but integrity specifically addresses the concern of data modification during transit.