What does data authentication primarily verify?

Data authentication primarily verifies the integrity of data. This process ensures that the data received is exactly what was sent, without any alterations or corruption during transmission. Integrity refers to the correctness and completeness of the data, confirming that it hasn’t been changed or tampered with by unauthorized individuals.

When data is authenticated, various methods, such as hashing or digital signatures, may be employed to validate that the data remains intact from its origin point to its destination. This is crucial in scenarios where data security and trustworthiness are of paramount importance, as it allows users to have confidence that the data they are working with is accurate and reliable.

The other options highlight different aspects of data handling: accuracy of data transmission focuses more on the performance of the data transfer itself rather than integrity, while the presence of viruses pertains to malware detection rather than data authenticity, and creating data backups relates to data preservation rather than its verification. Thus, integrity is the core aspect that data authentication specifically addresses.