How important is your information?
Confidentiality
How valuable is the information to you, your place of study or work, or others? How might the information be misused? What were the costs associated with creating the information, and how difficult or costly would it be to recreate it? How essential is it that the information remains confidential and undisclosed to unauthorised parties?
Examples of information where confidentiality is important include medical records, exam questions before they are administered, and research results prior to publication.
Integrity
How critical is it to prevent unauthorised or accidental alterations to the information?
Maintaining the integrity of information is vital, as we need to trust that the data is accurate. Examples include grades, course admissions, research data and application deadlines.
Availability
How critical is it to lose access to information temporarily or for it to be permanently lost? Examples of information where availability is crucial include information systems during critical phases of student admissions and exam administration, substantial student or research projects, exam responses and research data.
Keep in mind that the value of information can change over time. For instance, exam questions require strong protection before exams but can be freely shared afterward. See more examples in the document classification guide.