On Five Definitions of Data Integrity
Ravi S. Sandhu · 1993
This paper compares five definitions of data integrity, and shows how they can be ordered in an increasingly restrictive sequence. The most general of these, due to Courtney and Ware [6], is based on the concept of expectation of data quality: data has integrity to the extent that its quality meets, or exceeds, the quality requirements that users expect of it. This definition incorporates liveness requirements, whereas the others only address safety requirements. The second and third definitions are both based on the ability to modify data. One of these, due to Sandhu and Jajodia [16], defines the scope of integrity to be safeguards against the improper modification of data. The other narrows the scope further to safeguards against the unauthorized modification of data. This latter definition has been popular in recent security criteria [4,10]. The fourth definition discussed here is Biba's concept of integrity as one-directional information flow in a lattice [2]. We argue that Biba's...