Top Database Threats & How DataSunrise Shields Your Data

Data is a very critical asset of any company. Every day companies worldwide collect a lot of data on their daily operations and customers. Data is stored in databases that are used to handle data and automate various functions within and outside companies. Due to its utter importance, data protection is a critical component of business protection. Data security shall be the goal of any database management system (DBMS), also called database security. However, it is not always so. In this article we are going to learn more about database security threats and what IT security teams and business owners can do for database protection.

Protection of the database begins with physical security. You need to locate your servers in a secure and climate-controlled environment. Moreover, you need to provide access only to authorized employees and log any access. And be sure that access is provided only for authorized and granted users. If your databases are on the cloud, the provider will be responsible for these security measures.

Physical security is the first step on the way how to protect your database.

However, there are many other internal and external threats to databases and some of them are listed below.

Excessive Database Privileges

Database users may have different privileges. However, users may abuse them and here are the major types of privilege abuses: excessive privilege abuse, legitimate privileges abuse and unused privilege abuse. Excessive privileges always create unnecessary risks. According to statistics 80% of the attacks on company databases are executed by current company employees or ex-employees.

Countermeasures:

• It is advised to deploy and uphold a strict access and privileges control policy.
• Don’t grant excessive privileges to company employees and revoke outdated privileges in time.

SQL Injections

This is a type of attack when a malicious code is embedded in frontend (web) applications and then passed to the backend database. As the result of SQL injections cybercriminals get unlimited access to any data being stored in a database. There are two types of such computer attacks: SQL injection targeting traditional databases and NoSQL injections targeting big data databases.

Countermeasures:

• Stored procedure shall be used instead of direct queries.
• MVC Architecture shall be implemented.

Weak Audit Trail

If a database is not audited it represents risks of noncompliance with national and international sensitive data protection regulations. All database events shall be recorded and registered automatically and it’s obligatory to use automatic auditing solutions. Inability or unwillingness to do that represents a serious risk on many levels.

Countermeasures:

• Use automatic auditing solutions that impose no additional load on database performance. Using DataSunrise Database Auditing module could be the best solution for you and your business.
• Using DataSunrise Database Auditing module could be the best solution for you and your business

Database Backups Exposure

It’s a good practice to make backups of proprietary databases at defined periods of time. However, surprisingly database back-up files are often left completely unprotected from attack. As a result, there are numerous security breaches happening through database backup leaks.

Countermeasures:

• Encrypt both databases and backups. Storing data in encrypted form allows secure both production and back-up copies of databases. DataSunrise Data Encryption is the best way to do that.
• Audit both the database and backups. Doing this helps to see who has been trying to get access to sensitive data.

DB Vulnerabilities and Misconfigurations

It often happens that databases are found totally unprotected due to misconfiguration. Moreover, some databases have default accounts and configuration parameters. One should remember that hackers are often highly professional IT specialists who surely know how to exploit database vulnerabilities and misconfigurations and use them to attack your company.

Countermeasures:

• Your databases shouldn’t have any default accounts.
• Your IT personnel should be highly qualified and experienced.

Lack of Security Expertise and Education

Databases get breached and leaked due to insufficient level of IT security expertise and education of non-technical employees who may break basic database security rules and put databases at risk. IT security personnel may also lack the expertise required to implement security controls, enforce policies, or conduct incident response processes.

Countermeasures:

• Database users shall be educated in database security.
• IT security specialists shall be urged to raise their professional level and qualification.

Denial of Service Attack

DoS (Denial of Service) attack slows down a database server and can even make it unavailable to all users. Despite the fact that a DoS attack doesn’t disclose the contents of a database, it may cost the victims a lot of time and money. Moreover, what’s the use of a database if you can’t use or access it.

If DoS attack uses a huge amount of fake requests from one server, then DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack uses multiple servers. That is why it is harder to stop this type of attack.

Countermeasures:

• Harden the TCP/IP stack by applying the appropriate registry settings to increase the size of the TCP connection queue.
• Decrease the connection establishment period.
• Employ dynamic backlog mechanisms to ensure that the connection queue is never exhausted.
• Use a network Intrusion Detection System (IDS).

Unmanaged Sensitive Data

Many companies store a lot of sensitive information and fail to keep an accurate inventory of it. Forgotten and unattended data may fall prey to hackers. In addition, new sensitive data is added on a daily basis and it’s not easy to keep track of it all. It means that newly added data may be exposed to threats.

Countermeasures:

• Encrypt all sensitive data in your database(s).
• Apply required controls and permissions to the database.
• Run periodic search for new sensitive data on your databases. You can do this very effectively with the Periodic Data Discovery tool and Compliance Manager that will automatically discover newly added sensitive data and protect it.

Malware

Malware is software written to damage data or causes harm to your databases. Malware could arrive by any endpoint device that is connected to the database’s network and exploit vulnerabilities of your system to take advantage of.

Countermeasures:

• Protect any endpoints on your databases. Set up a special malware protection software and spread knowledge among users about risk and prevention methods.

Conclusion

Database security and privacy are of utmost importance. Securing databases against cyber threats is a critical aspect of any organization’s overall database cyber security strategy. By implementing robust security measures, such as encryption, access controls, and real-time monitoring, companies can protect their sensitive data from unauthorized access, data breaches, and other malicious activities.

Regular security audits and vulnerability assessments can help identify potential weaknesses in the database infrastructure, allowing organizations to address them proactively. Furthermore, investing in employee training and awareness programs can help foster a culture of database security and privacy.

By prioritizing database security and privacy, organizations can safeguard their valuable data assets, maintain customer trust, and comply with increasingly stringent data protection regulations.

In this article we learned about some of the major threats your databases and sensitive data within can be exposed to. Data protection solutions should have a full range of possibilities to be able to protect your database and sensitive data, such as data discovery, activity monitoring, encryption, and tokenization.

DataSunrise has all of these tools to secure your databases. With our data discovery tool, you can easily find sensitive data wherever it resides. So you always be sure that all your sensitive data is protected and nothing is left outside.

With our activity monitoring, you can see every query that is going through the database. Moreover, you can set up a notification if something suspicious is happening in your databases.

With our data masking tools, you can encrypt everything that you want and be sure that cyber attackers will not be able to get any sensitive information in case of intrusion.

Make the right choice and download your DataSunrise trial version right now.