Okay kiddo, imagine you have a puzzle and you want to make sure all the pieces are there and they fit together correctly. That's what data integrity is all about!
In a computer, there are lots of pieces of information - like numbers, words, and pictures - that need to be stored and shared with others. But just like a puzzle, we want to make sure that these pieces are complete and haven't been changed in any way.
So, data integrity is a field that focuses on making sure that all the pieces of information are correct and haven't been tampered with. This is really important because if the data is wrong, it can cause all sorts of problems.
For example, imagine you're playing a game and the score is saved to a file on the computer. If someone changes the score to make it look like they won when they didn't, that wouldn't be fair! But if we use data integrity techniques, we can make sure that the score is correct and can't be changed by anyone who shouldn't have access to it.
So, in summary, data integrity is like making sure all the pieces of a puzzle are complete and fit together correctly - but instead of a puzzle, we're checking that information stored on a computer is correct and can't be changed by unauthorized people.