SQL databases are used in many businesses and companies all over the world. They are attached to applications as a means of storing information. They are used to store customer information, orders, keep track of sales and stock among other useful logistics. SQL database are powerful in terms of queries, retrieval and organizing data in a well sorted way. Using SQL databases, a company can be able to store information for longer durations and maintain a reliable reference to all the information that it works with. With the modern internet, web applications communicate with a database that runs on a server behind the scenes. This makes it possible to maintain running applications that are able to render credible services to their customers.
One of the weaknesses that the SQL databases possess is the ability to be queried. Whenever someone is making queries on the databases, the string that is used in the query is executed directly by the database program. The database program then returns the results according to the instructions that were in the query. The queries are used to filter out results and return a subset of the data that matches the parameters that were specified by the database users. Attackers can make use of the same approach to cause damage or access your SQL data illegally. This is what is known as an SQL injection attack and takes place in the form of a normal database query. These kinds of attacks are very difficult to detect and could cause damage to your database.
SQL injection attacks add illegal characters to the search query in an effort to cause damage to the database. For instance, the query could contain commands to delete the entire database or remove a record. This is used by hackers who need to eliminate some information from the database. The hackers will modify their queries to match a certain record in the database and instead of retrieving it, simply delete it and get rid of it. This way, there will be no evidence of the record ever having been in the database. This is a simple approach at causing damage to information on databases and has been used by hackers for a long time.
One of the simple ways to prevent such kind of attacks is by securing your database. You can enforce rules on the kind of query types that are allowed by your database in order to prevent unauthorized modification of the information. The records should not be changed without verification and authentication from the end of the users. This is done by logging into the system using a username and a password. By doing this, an authentication token is created to confirm the identity of the user accessing the database. All the information is kept in a log for later reference and whenever there is a record change, its timestamp is logged for later analysis. With this in place, all your records will be kept safe and secure away from the reach of hackers.
