Database Security

Database security is the technique that protects and secures the database against intentional or accidental threats.

Security concerns will be relevant not only to the data resides in an organization's database: the breaking of security may harm other parts of the system which may ultimately affect the database structure

Threats in a Database

• Availability loss − Availability loss refers to non-availability of database objects by legitimate users.


• Integrity loss − Integrity loss occurs when unacceptable operations are performed upon the database either accidentally or maliciously. This may happen while creating, inserting, updating or deleting data. It results in corrupted data leading to incorrect decisions.


• Confidentiality loss − Confidentiality loss occurs due to unauthorized or unintentional disclosure of confidential information. It may result in illegal actions, security threats and loss in public confidence.

Measures of Control

 Themeasures of control can be broadly divided into the following categories −

• Access Control − Access control includes security mechanisms in a database management system to protect against unauthorized access. A user can gain access to the database after clearing the login process through only valid user accounts. Each user account is password protected.


• Flow Control − Distributed systems encompass a lot of data flow from one site to another and also within a site. Flow control prevents data from being transferred in such a way that it can be accessed by unauthorized agents. A flow policy lists out the channels through which information can flow. It also defines security classes for data as well as transactions.


• Data Encryption − Data encryption refers to coding data when sensitive data is to be communicated over public channels. Even if an unauthorized agent gains access of the data, he cannot understand it since it is in an incomprehensible format.