Information Assurance
Information assurance is the practice of ensuring that information remains available, accurate, authentic, confidential, and protected throughout its lifecycle.
“Measures that protect and defend information and information systems by ensuring their availability, integrity, authentication, confidentiality, and non-repudiation. These measures include providing for restoration of information systems by incorporating protection, detection, and reaction capabilities.”
(Definition reproduced from the ISTQB Glossary. Copyright belongs to ISTQB.)
View the complete ISTQB GlossaryWhat is Information Assurance?
Information assurance combines security, risk management, and operational practices to maintain trust in information systems.
Multiple objectives: Covers confidentiality, integrity, availability, authenticity, and non-repudiation.
Risk management: Identifies and reduces information-related risks.
Business focus: Protects both technical systems and organizational information assets.
Real World Example
A regulated product team is preparing a release where Information assurance appears in reviews, test design conversations, or defect triage rather than as an isolated glossary word.
The risk is that the team treats Information assurance as interchangeable with nearby ISTQB terms. That makes test scope blurry and can lead to weak evidence for the release decision.
The tester anchors the discussion in the official definition, asks where the concept appears in the product, and designs examples that show the difference between Information assurance and similar ideas.
The page becomes useful in practice because Information assurance is connected to a specific testing decision, not memorized as a detached definition.
Practice Questions
Question 1
Which statement BEST describes Information assurance in the context of ISTQB terminology?
Question 2
A tester needs to explain Information assurance to a non‑technical stakeholder. Which approach is MOST appropriate?
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