Database Project

TOPIC –  database security and control methods 

 

1. 5 source annotated bibliography

2. slide presentation with 12 or more slides

3. Summary or Abstract containing at least 750 words.

Refer word document as a sample for content!

A database is a crucial part of the business operation because of the primary means of storing information and other sensitive or confidential data. The fact that multiple security threats make database vulnerable to security attacks most organization address this recognize that security measure is a crucial factor in their operation. However, a significant percentage of individuals do not understand which step is best for a particular threat. Focusing on the topic will help to develop a conceptual understanding of different risks to the database, the best countermeasure of each threat, and the method that allows control over these threats. Some of the most common threats which face organization database today include vulnerability due to excessive privileges, SQL injection, malware, and weak audit test, vulnerability to backup exposure, frail authentication misconfiguration, and mismanagement of sensitive data. And denial of service attacks (Hartline, 2017).

Providing excessive privileges to database access may significantly lead to lead to misuse to perform unauthorized activities, which can lead to a data breach. Grushka-Cohen, Sofer, Biller, Shapira & Rokach (2016) indicate that employees cause 90 % of the database security attack, and this includes both current and earlier personnel who have ever worked in a particular organization. For example, the

 

Google self-driving car properties intelligence breach by Antony Levandowski (who had access privilege to Google’s secret information such as source code snippets, video of the self-drives test) is a good real-life example of excessive privilege threat to database security. Malik & Patel (2016) states privileged access allows employees to navigate freely across the network without being detected, and hence this can turn an external threat into insider threats.” The best or most preferred countermeasure for this threat includes improving access control measures and providing efficient audit tests.

The misconfiguration threat, as listed above, exposure a database to security threats through incidences such as cases of an un-patched database or default accounts. Malik & Patel (2016) suggest that an organization that fails to maintain high accuracy in the configuration of database exposures itself to security attack vulnerability. Hartline (2017) additionally states, “It takes a long time before an organization patch its databases, and this leaves a significant time within which the databases are still vulnerable. The best countermeasure to address this threat includes ensuring that the database is free from the default account, and a new account should be created using new usernames and different passwords.    

An organization can integrate different forms of control technics to mitigate database security threat, and this includes methods such as access control, user identification, and authentication techniques, setting level-based policy, using encryption, and auditing techniques. Hartline (2017) suggests that an organization should integrate all these techniques to achieve optimal database security capability. The author explains that using encryption techniques helps to protect information from an unauthorized person. However, the fact that this information is still accessible to some people still leaves the database vulnerable. This is the reason why encryption should be integrated with the auditing approach, and so do the other techniques that rely on other methods to be effective. “Effective database security includes a combination of different control measures that helps an organization to mitigate both internal and external database security threats” (Pevnev & Kapchynskyi, 2018).

 
 
 

References

Grushka-Cohen, H., Sofer, O., Biller, O., Shapira, B., & Rokach, L. (2016, October). CyberRank: knowledge elicitation for risk assessment of database security. In Proceedings of the 25th ACM International on Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (pp. 2009-2012).

Hartline Jr, C. L. (2017). Examination of Insider Threats: A Growing Concern (Doctoral dissertation, Utica College).

Malik, M., & Patel, T. (2016). Database security attacks and control methods. International Journal of Information, 6(1/2), 175-183.

Pevnev, V., & Kapchynskyi, S. (2018). Database security: threats and preventive measures.