Command integrity is the assurance that a control instruction is authentic, unmodified, and issued by an authorized source. In cyber security, this protects the systems that accept remote commands, such as industrial controllers, satellites, drones, launch systems, and cloud-admin tools. If an attacker can forge, replay, or alter a command, they may change device behavior, disrupt operations, or trigger unsafe actions.
In practice, command integrity is protected with authentication, cryptographic signatures, message authentication codes, sequence numbers, and secure channels. These controls help operators verify that a command came from the right sender and was not tampered with in transit. Defenders also monitor for anomalies, such as unexpected command timing, duplicate messages, or changes that do not match approved procedures. In mission-critical environments, command integrity is as important as availability, because a system that obeys the wrong instruction can fail even when it stays online.