[ISN] Fear the database admin, warns security report

From: InfoSec News <alerts_at_private>
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2008 01:32:53 -0600 (CST)
http://www.techworld.com/security/news/index.cfm?newsID=108428

By John E. Dunn
Techworld
15 December 2008

One of the best ways to improve database security is to carefully 
monitor the very people entrusted to manage them, database 
administrators (DBAs), a report has concluded.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the Aberdeen Group study of 120 mostly large 
companies around the globe found a correlation between adopting a range 
of database security practices and frequency of data breaches.

Companies ranked as using ‘best practice' suffered 8 percent fewer 
incidents of data loss compared to those not adopting such measures, and 
ended up with 10 percent fewer of a range of audit deficiencies.

However, one of the defining characteristics of companies rated as 
having good security was a strict management of the managers. This means 
that database staff are monitored in some form, there is a separation of 
duties between different managers, and certain kinds of database access 
are blocked or restricted.

"In this study, respondents estimated that databases are the repository 
for nearly two-thirds of their sensitive data, so it's no surprise that 
the results show organisations that monitor privileged user activity 
suffer fewer data losses," said Aberdeen group's Derek E. Brink.

[...]


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Received on Mon Dec 15 2008 - 23:32:53 PST

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