Which of the following pieces of information of an existing file is changed when a hard link pointing to that file is created?

A hard link simply provides another name for the same file data, so creating one does not change the actual size of the file content.

The modify timestamp (`mtime`) is updated only when the content of the file changes, not when a hard link is created; however, the change timestamp (`ctime`) would be updated due to metadata alteration.

Creating a hard link increments the link count (or reference count) stored within the file's inode because another directory entry now points to the same underlying data.

Hard links share the same inode number, as they all point to the identical data on the disk; creating a new hard link does not change the inode number itself.

Permissions are stored in the inode and are shared by all hard links to that inode; creating a new hard link does not alter the existing permissions of the file.