What are the different methods of database security?

In modern life, because of the fast growth of technology and the internet, more companies keep their information in the form of digital databases, database systems are becoming an important part of daily life. Any company or person almost deals with activities that interact with databases like banking transactions, reservations, looking for something, and more. Once in every business, hardcopy documents have been reduced or even removed, sensitive data being stored in databases, so these have become the main goal for hackers and cyber-attacks, leading to financial loss, damage of reputation, business continuity, and user's confidence. As a result, database security has become very important nowadays. In using databases, developers made an important point on growing and continuously improving the security technologies to manage the most dangerous attacks. Their target is dealing with all the substances regarding databases' integrity and the validity of data store. Data security is a collective measure that aims to protect not only the information inside the database but also the data management system and all the applications that access it from violation, misuse of data, and destruction. There are many categories of ways for securing databases, and each of them has some advantages and disadvantages. These types of database safety are essential techniques used to provide data security.

Authentication

Database authentication is the type of database security; it provides access control for systems by checking to see if a user's login credentials match the credentials stored in the database of a recognized user or data authentication servers. Users can log in credentials match the database, and then they can access the data. Authentication happens when the user provides credentials like a password that matches their user ID, password, and biometric signature. The user allows access to any other rights linked to the user. This sort of security is next in line and should be in influence after the data in the transport protocol has been completed. This security carries various layers within itself, like using the multi-factor authentication way that adds changeable layers of security and makes the prate of authenticating a special user and granting them success more accessible. Hence it prevents the data from unauthorized users. 

Authorization

The terms authentication and authorization are the same, but they are two distinct functions, and they are often implemented together. Authentication is the process of proving and verifying the identity of a certified user and preserving networks and systems. Authorization is a process that validates that the authenticated user or process has been given authority to gain access to the exact elements the dedicated user has requested. The permission allocated to a definite user can be configured for a specific organization or application.

Database Encryption

It is one of the most effective  database security that ensures  the database from unauthorized access over the internet. Even if other security elements secure systems from intrusion, damage, and attack, encryption is a basic form of protection that deals with the security of the data itself. It protects sensitive data and numbers by scrambling factual information. The data is encoded using some encoding algorithms, and encryption algorithms transform the obvious text data into code text of unreadable formats within a database. However, there are many methods to generate and apply codes. The result is to make the data unusable if an attacker avoids the standard defenses and takes direct access to the raw basic unit of information inside. Database encryption is expensive and requires more storage space than native information, and various algorithms are used for encryption.

Here are the steps in data encrypting:

Specify the criticality of the obligation for encryptionSpecify what information requires to be encryptedSpecify which algorithms are the best for the encryption standardSpecify how the keys will be run and managed

The algorithms generate keys linked to the encrypted data. These keys set a connection between the encryption and decryption series of steps. The encrypted data can be decrypted only by using these specified keys.

Backup data

A backup database is another type of database safety used to restore information. Backup is a copy of your data. This copy concludes important parts of your database. It is a defense against unexpected data loss, errors, data corruption, hacking, and it reconstructs the database after any kind of data loss. Backups can be divided into the physical backup and the logical backup. Physical backup is a backup of the physical files used in storing and improving the database. It reconstructs data and makes it available to the oracle server—for example, files, control files, and archived logs. Logical backups contain logical data that you extract using the oracle export utility and store in a binary file for later reimporting into a database using the similar oracle import utility.

Access Control 

Access control is another security technique that creates user accounts and controls the login process by the DBMS. So, that database access of sensitive data is possible only to those users permitted to access the data and restrict access to unauthorized users. It normally uses an identifier like an access card to authorize users to go into certain areas, and it can log who accessed where and when. They can provide costly data to help you track how your sites are being used.

 The data system must also keep track of all functions performed by a certain user through the entire login time. You can use an access control system in place of keys because the mechanical key is the most effortless form of physical access control. They have several problems and limitations, such as when somebody loses a key, he/she needs to replace the lock to make certain the lost key can't be misused, or You can't see when some other used a key, and you don't know who's entered. By using access control systems, you can get away from the drawback of using keys and also get more control.

Use Strong Password

It is a simple way, but essential tip for providing database security. You should use a hard and strong password for database login and never share your password with your coworkers, family, etc. If anyone uses an easy password such as a mobile number, date of birthday, hackers will try to log in using the passwords, so you will lose your database control. Make a password for database login using a combination of letters, numbers, special characters.

Web applications and firewalls

Using web applications and firewalls is database security at the outside layer. You need to use a firewall to secure your database server from database security threats. Firewalls prevent intruders from accessing an organization's network over the internet, and it does not allow access to traffic. It needs to stop your database from starting outbound connections unless there is a special reason for doing. they are a decisive prerequisite for cyber security concerns. Web apps that interface with databases can be safe by access management software. This data security procedure is the same as access control lists and explains who can access web applications and how they can do it. There are also firewalls for individual web applications that deliver the same advantages as traditional firewalls. However, a database firewall doesn't prevent most web application threats because traditional firewalls work at the network's different layers, while web application layers work at the application layer.

Conclusions 

At last, today, database protection is one of the most significant concerns over the data management landscape. It is an important feature of a website and web application. If you properly be unsuccessful in securing your database, hackers can access your database. So, database security is important and necessary to protect from attacks that can lead to financial loss, damage of reputation, business, and user confidence. We have described the different variety of database safety. Making available the best methods and regulations for the security of a database is not simple, but with events that include strengthening management control, an organization can prevent sensitive data. In a first step, data security is realized by fulfilling the three fundamental principles: confidentiality, integrity, and availability. By defining roles and granting access rights or advantages to users are, we realized additional security of the database information. It can be said that developing a database is not so hard and impossible as to develop a secured one. Database protection, in general, is organized, implemented, and preserved by database administrators and or other data security professionals. Organizations and companies can reduce the most growing threats to database protection by using many approaches.