The CIA triad is a long-standing acronym for three prime security requirements:
Although the CIA triad is familiar for defense and governmental security applications, it makes no specific reference to the Central Intelligence Agency (or any other department of government). The initials C-I-A are simply a mnemonic device to remember the most widely stated goals for IT security.
There is nothing exhaustive about the CIA triad. Many other values are often posited as core security requirements. Some of these include: identity, authentication, authorization, and non-repudiation. Different authors will select different target goals depending on what the specific purpose is. That being said, however, the CIA triad is the most venerable and most commonly cited list of core IT security requirements.