AP Networking Practice Test

Confidentiality means restricting access to information so that only authorized people or systems can view it. The statement that best captures this is that only authorized users can access specific assets or data. This reflects the core idea of access control: verify who you are and ensure you’re allowed to access the resource. Tools like authentication and authorization enforce this, and encryption can further protect data so that even if someone intercepts it, they can’t understand it without the proper keys.

The other options relate to other aspects of information security. Availability is about ensuring resources are accessible when needed, not about who can view them. Data integrity is about keeping data accurate and unaltered. Secure routing protocols help protect data as it moves through a network, but they don’t directly define who may access the data.