Difference between fabrication and modification

Question

I came across one of the books related to information security where i saw these two terms, fabrication and modification of data.

I can't figure out how they are different?

What is the difference between fabrication and modification of data?

Could anyone please explain me these, in very simple terms?

Update:

fabrication: An unauthorized party inserts counterfeit objects into the system and basically attacks the authenticity of the system.

modification: An unauthorized party modifies the assets of the system and basically attacks the integrity of the system.

Answer 1

Let's assume you break into a billing system and want to create havoc:

Fabrication would, for example mean, you make up a non-existant supplier with made up contracts and regularily payments to your own account.

Modification would mean in the same context you pick an existing supplier with existing valid contracts and existing, valid payments but change his account number to yours.

Answer 2

In fabrication, you put in a new counterfeit item into the data set. In modification, you just take an existing item from the data set and change it.

As you already pointed out, the former compromises the authenticity of your data. Let's use an analogy... Imagine you record your daily expenses. Someone gets a hold of it. Inserting a new bogus expense into your 12-Aug-2016 record is data fabrication. That day's record is no longer authentic.

The latter on the other hand, compromises data integrity. Extending the previous analogy... if that someone just takes an existing expense, say what you spent for lunch, from 12-Aug-2016 and doubles the amount, then that's data modification. The record will still look authentic. But the total expense would be corrupted.