Database security issues

You may be owner of a business or someone who is responsible for maintaining database security, in both the roles you need to tackle so many database security issues on daily basis.

To tackle these problems it is important for you to understand them. It is obvious that if you know the reasons of a reccurring problem then you can fix it permanently and stop it from occurring. One most common security issue is managing user passwords. It is human to forget something or the other when you are taking care of so many security issues

. At times the Database security managers forget to remove access privileges and IDs of some former users. This makes the password vulnerable. IT database security managers need to ensure that the password related policies and rules need to be maintained and followed strictly.

This will not only ensure the security of the database but also avoid unnecessary access of the database by people who are either not authorized or do not need to access it. Daily review of the database audit logs is also needed to monitor the database access. This helps in checking if the data is being accessed by the people who are authorized to access it.

Even the authorized users should get the access only within their limits. User access accounts need to be updated and checked regularly. Maintaining a record of database privileges is a big challenge. With the huge workload on the IT managers, daily maintenance is a big issue however it is better to do it on daily basis and it will eventually lower down your work load.

Whenever there any database is upgraded then the DBA must ensure that the security is consistent and is not compromised because of any upgrade that is done. If this post upgrade evaluation is not done then the database is left open to any unauthorized access and can lead to big database security issues.

You must be aware of application spoofing. It is a way of accessing unauthorized databases by creating applications similar to the ones that are already connected to the database.  This technique is used by hackers to get access to your database and these applications are difficult to distinguish and identify.

These applications are big security risk to your database and a sensitive issue. All the applications that are connected to the database and that function within the database have different types of security methods and programs. The reason of this difference is that these applications are developed by different application developers. It is very difficult to regulate the security level of all these applications.

Here you must take care of the fact that the database must have proper access controls to regulate all these different methods of security or you may be putting your database at risk. There may be many other database security issues specific to the organizations depending on the type of information that they handle. One of the best ways to tackle these issues is to divide the responsibilities clearly between the database security manager and the IT administrator.

It helps in making someone accountable for the particular job he is entrusted with.  If you can have 2 people for 2 different jobs then these people can do justice to their job responsibilities. You know that windows operating systems are not that effective in maintain database security. Here, an efficient database manager can take adequate precautions to keep a check on the effectiveness of the passwords and their proper use.

Technology has solution for everything but successful implementation of technology depends on the people who are implementing it. Employing efficient personnel is the key to resolve database security issues.