So, it begs the question: how do we solve this? How can your organization's data be protected? Or how can you secure your organization's database from malicious actors? Whereas there are various exceptional security methods for protecting organizational databases, one must first know the major issues resulting in database insecurity. New findings by Dark Reading show that hackers take advantage of numerous security flaws to execute their malicious activities. "Nevertheless, it's usually an organization's staff - database developers, network administrators, etc., who create an environment that is favorable for attackers to execute their heinous activities." Notes ZDNet. That said, we need to discuss some of the top database issues that sabotage its security.
Major Database Security Threats
According to Gerhart, security threats picked out over the previous few years are the very same issues that are plaguing organizations today. The top database security threats are:
– Extraordinary privileges
When an organization grants its staff default database rights that surpass what their job functions require, these privileges are subject to abuse. For instance, a bank teller whose job requires the expertise to modify only account owner contact details may abuse those privileges and raise the account balance of their colleague's savings account. Besides, some organizations fail, knowingly or unknowingly, to change access rights for staff who switch roles/functions or quit altogether.
– Database injection attacks SQL and NoSQL
injections are the two major sorts of database injection attacks that target conventional database infrastructure and big data platforms respectively. More importantly, while it's technically correct that big data technologies are impermeable to SQL injection-related attacks as they do not rely on SQL-enabled technologies, they are vulnerable to the very same class of attack. In both cases, an injection attack grants unauthorized users unrestricted access to a whole database. •
– Storage Media Exposure:
Often, most organizations leave their backup storage solutions entirely unprotected from attackers. Consequently, several data breaches that have happened previously have involved the manipulation or theft of database backup. In addition, the laxity to audit and surveil the activities of network administrators with low-level access to confidential data puts the organization's information at risk. Therefore, taking the right measures to secure database backup media that stores sensitive information and monitoring highly privileged staff members is not just a cybersecurity best practice, but also a requirement by various policies.
– Exploiting vulnerable databases
Ordinarily, it takes an organization a couple of months to patch their databases. During this period, these data resources are exposed to possible exploitation by bad actors. Hackers exploit unpatched database servers and databases that are configured with default settings. Some organizations find it hard to maintain database configurations even with the availability of patches. Fundamental concerns include extreme workloads and scaled backlogs for affiliated administrators, sophisticated time-consuming prerequisites for examining patches, and problems in finding a maintenance window for taking down and working on what's often categorized as business-critical infrastructure.
– Unmanaged sensitive information:
Some organizations hassle to sustain an error-free inventory of their databases and integral data objects. Neglected databases may carry sensitive data, and the new databases could emerge without being visible to security teams. Sensitive data contained in these databases will be revealed to threat actors if appropriate controls and authentications are not executed.
– Human Factor:
Studies show that practically 30 percent of the total security breaches in an organization are caused by human negligence. Often, this is associated with unprofessionalism and the lack of skills needed to execute security controls, impose security policies, or perform incident response procedures.
– Inference:
This security concern is often ignored by many business executives. Principally, it implies the capacity to determine secure data through queries of unprotected or uncritical data. For instance, an organizational database that desires to hide the exact number of accounts that enjoys a particular level of privilege may assign those accounts unique, successive IDs. By querying for each account, that's accessible, the tally of accounts that are not accessible and their peculiar IDs are inferred by ID numbers.
– Unnecessarily enabled capability:
Some databases are developed with plasticity in mind, but this pliability exposes the database to potential threats when these capabilities meant for different uses are enabled in environments where they aren't required. By simply deactivating all but the requisite capabilities, a database can significantly enhance its security.
How do you solve all these? By reducing the surface area of potential attacks through the elimination of less-important and less-used features and resources. Whereas they may have or lack susceptibilities, when they aren't required, it's most appropriate to deactivate/disable them. That way, the database will become simpler for assessment, ascertaining, patching, and fixing bugs. Additionally, you'll require an array of defensive best practices and security controls to secure your organization's database, which includes:
a) Examining any database vulnerability, picking up compromised network endpoints, and grouping business-critical information.
b) Managing user access prerogatives and getting rid of extraordinary privileges.
c) Surveilling database access activities and application patterns regularly to identify data leaks, unwanted SQL, big data operations, and system attacks.
d) Using random IDs instead of consecutive one, where you want to hide the numbers. e) Always escaping the input to your SQL requests to only allowed.
f) Automating the auditing procedures.
g) Encrypting databases sensitive information.
h) Training your employees on risk-prevention methods including how to detect familiar cyber threats, like spear-phishing attacks, internet best practices, email use, and password management.
Final Thoughts
That's all about the top database security concerns. At the least, organizations can follow the aforementioned solutions to enhance the security of their databases. Besides, other industry best standards such as PCI DSS can be used.
