How does the BCC ensure data integrity across distributed sensors?

• A. Cryptographic authentication, data validation, redundant checks, and audit trails.
• B. Manual log entries by operators only.
• C. Daily backups of all data to a local drive.
• D. Disabling encryption to speed up processing.

Answer: (A)

Ensuring data integrity across distributed sensors relies on cryptographic authentication, data validation, redundant checks, and audit trails. Cryptographic authentication verifies that data originates from trusted sensors and hasn’t been tampered with in transit, using digital signatures or message authentication codes. Data validation checks ensure readings are within expected ranges and conform to the communication protocol, catching outliers, corrupted values, or malformed messages. Redundant checks involve cross-verification across multiple sensors or channels, so discrepancies can be detected and flagged for review. Audit trails provide a traceable record of who accessed or modified data, when, and what was done, enabling accountability and post‑event analysis to identify tampering or faults.

Manual operator logs, while helpful for context, cannot provide real-time cryptographic assurance or scalable verification. Daily backups address recovery after data loss but do not guarantee the integrity of live data streams and can be compromised themselves. Disabling encryption undermines security and does not inherently improve data integrity; encryption, combined with integrity checks, helps protect against tampering while protecting confidentiality.