Integrity risk is the chance that data, code, or system state will be changed without authorization. In cyber security, integrity is about trust: can you rely on what you see, run, or deploy being the same as what the owner intended? If integrity is lost, even a system that still “works” can become unsafe because attackers may have altered files, configurations, source code, logs, or automation inputs.
This risk shows up in attacks such as code injection, repository tampering, unauthorized branch changes, and supply-chain abuse. In a development platform, for example, a malicious edit to a public project can break builds, plant backdoors, or mislead reviewers into trusting compromised code. Defenders reduce integrity risk with authentication, least privilege, input validation, code review, signed commits, immutable logs, and monitoring for unexpected changes. The key goal is to detect and block unauthorized modification before it can spread through users, pipelines, or downstream releases.