Which component of the CIA triad prevents unauthorized access to confidential information?

The component that specifically prevents unauthorized access to confidential information is confidentiality. Confidentiality is a key principle of the CIA triad, which stands for Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability. The central idea behind confidentiality is to ensure that sensitive information is accessible only to those individuals who have the proper authorization. This is typically achieved through a range of security measures such as encryption, access controls, and authentication mechanisms, which collectively work to protect data from being disclosed to individuals who should not have access to it.

When we consider the other components of the CIA triad, integrity focuses on ensuring that data is accurate and has not been tampered with, while availability ensures that information and services are accessible when needed. Information security itself is a broader term that encompasses practices and strategies that include all elements of the CIA triad but does not point to just one aspect as confidentiality does. Thus, confidentiality is the correct choice since it directly addresses the prevention of unauthorized access to sensitive information.