What does the protection goal Confidentiality (Vertraulichkeit) guarantee?

That information cannot be viewed by unauthorised people, systems, or processes.

Confidentiality is about controlling who can read something. It's typically enforced with:

• Encryption (so intercepted data is unreadable)
• Access control (authentication + authorisation)
• Need-to-know principles and classification

Common violation: a data breach where attackers exfiltrate and leak data. Notably, confidentiality breaches are often discovered late or never — the data is silently copied, and you may only learn about it when it appears for sale.

Tip: "Harvest now, decrypt later" attacks specifically target confidentiality across time — see the dedicated card.