A database is a sensitive resource for you as it contains valuable information. For this reason, you should treat it as if it were money in a bank. The nature of the data in a database means that you should always protect it. Knowing how to secure a database is very important for you and your company.
When you can keep your database secure, no hackers will try to gain unauthorized access to your information. Securing your database also preserves the confidentiality of the data stored in it and the trust of the people who rely on the data.
Database applications are designed to hold data for as long as you like and will let you keep your business or organization running with a reliable store for all their data. Whenever your business is growing, it will also need the database to scale up and reach a more significant number of customers. As the size of your database keeps growing, you must retain all the data secure.
Securing your databases is one of the main activities you will be taking part in while maintaining a database for your business, company, or organization. The database will ensure that your organization is productive and making a profit.
Additionally, a secure database will add to the value of the data that is stored on it.
If any of the databases you use are not safe, hackers will be all over your system and leak your private and confidential information to the public. You must know how to secure your database, and the following are some of the methods you can use to keep your database secure. A secure database is a valuable asset for modern businesses and organizations.
When you have your database secure, you can be assured that no one will be able to use your data without the proper authorization and permissions. Following are some of the methods you can use to secure your database from illegal access and other techniques that hackers usually use to gain unlawful entry into databases.
Use Authorization Tokens
Whenever an application is interacting with your database, you should use authorization tokens to ensure that your session is secured. The use of tokens ensures that the application that is on the receiving end provides its identity and that of the current user of the application.
For instance, a user logged into a mobile application will have a different token compared to when they are using a desktop device or the web to access the database.
Whenever you have tokens to secure your database, you will be able to keep track of access to the information on your database. You will also be able to secure your database by only accepting valid tokens. The design of the tokens should include other details such as the validity of the tokens and how long they are supposed to last for.
When a token has expired, then it can no longer be used, which means that your data will be safe from hackers. The hackers will not be able to use a token that has already expired, which means that all the sessions that your database establishes with client applications will be safe and fully verified. The reason for using authorization tokens is to minimize the number of illegal entries into your database application.
It is also intended to ensure that only verified users can access your database. The application takes care of logging in the users, and as such, they get to be authenticated at the client end. When they are authenticated, the token will reflect that they are logged in and are authorized users of ht application. The token will secure all the data that they will be asking for from the database.
The token is also used to determine the kind of encryption that you will use for the database. The token will determine the pattern and strategy used by the database to encrypt the data and ensure that it has been appropriately encrypted before leaving the database. The unique nature of each of the authentication tokens used means that each session established with the database is unique and completely different from what other users would have.
As such, impersonation is very hard as the token might change slightly when it is stolen. The database application will immediately refuse an application attempts to gain access into the database with a tampered or even modified somewhat token. Tokens that expire after a while also ensure that only the authorized users are accessing your database application.
Whenever the user has stayed for a long time without asking for any information from the database, the token will no longer be valid. They will need to ask for a new token to continue using the database. The use of tokens does not require the user to take part in the setting up and tearing down the database access and querying session. The use of authorization tokens is meant to keep your database actively keeping track of all the sessions with the client applications.
The client applications will need to generate a new token for each new connection they make after the current token has expired. This prevents the misuse of your database application, and it also keeps your database safe and secure from all kinds of illegal and unwarranted access attempts.
The people that do not have a valid token will not be able to access your database, and it will refuse all their requests unless they can get a valid token to use for their connection. The architecture of your database should secure the database, such as placing checks and measures in place that will prevent hackers and other malicious individuals from gaining access to your information.
Encrypt your Data
While the data is in transit, it can be intercepted by hackers. The hackers that intercept the information moving between the database application and other client applications will see all the data in plain text. Unless you can encrypt the data, you have no business using the database, and you should immediately stop using the database.
Unencrypted data is easy to view even on secure connections, and hackers will quickly find out what kind of queries are being made on your database applications. They will also be able to see the type of replies sent back from the database when they intercept the data from the database.
For this reason, you must always encrypt the data that you are sending to a database. You should always encrypt all the traffic between the database and your client application to ensure that hackers do not work the meaning of the data backward. The use of encryption presents the data in a format that hackers cannot discern, and they will only end up with gibberish that they cannot make use of.
Even when your connections are being intercepted and your data and internet traffic being monitored, the use of encryption for the data moving between the client application and the database will be beneficial. It will ensure that your database is safe and secure while also getting rid of the possibility that hackers might intercept your data and reveal what is being passed between the database and the client application.
Using longer keys for your encryption means that hackers will need to spend more time and computing efforts to find out the real nature of the information being passed between the database and the client applications.
The use of solid encryption mechanisms is essential for modern database applications. When you have the best encryption in place, your database will manage to keep the hackers out of the loop, and none of the information on your database will leak out.
Even when hackers are listening in to your connections, there is no way they will find out the real nature of the information even when they manage to intercept it. The use of strong encryption also shows that you have the best protection standards in place for your data. Your database will keep the data safe and protected from all kinds of unwarranted and unauthorized access ad you will also get to experience stress-free use of your database.
The modern encryption mechanisms are known to be much lighter and will not cause a significant increase in the amount of data used to access the database. The use of encryption will be beneficial for keeping hackers in the dark and assuring the users of your database that all their sessions are safe and secure.
Use Firewalls
The connections might be secure, encrypted, and all but the server on which your database resides also needs to be secured. The use of a firewall to keep your database safe and secure is essential as it will filter all the traffic passing between your database server and the network. If there are any suspicious attempts at accessing the information on your database, you will be able to stop them before they can get serious.
When you block such traffic, you will also be reducing the possibility of hackers and other malicious applications accessing your database under disguise. Firewalls are intended to keep networked devices and applications safe and secure from all kinds of attacks. The use of firewalls to protect the server on which your database is hosted will be very effective at keeping your database safe.
When you have the firewall in place, all the illegal attempts to access your database will be thwarted, and all the suspicious IP addresses flagged. This will ensure that you can stop an attack before it can even happen by monitoring your incoming traffic. Some of the methods that attackers and hackers have been known to use usually generate a lot of traffic, primarily when a script is being used in the attack.
The firewall will immediately detect the traffic, and since it is out of the norm, it will immediately be locked. The firewall is essential and one of the most effective ways to keep hackers out of your database. You will have a more peaceful time when you have your database securely firewalled in place.
The hackers and other malicious users will have a more challenging time trying to break into your database. Any of the methods they will try to use will also be stopped before they can even progress. The hackers will also be easier to control when you have a robust firewall keeping your database secure. The use of a firewall is recommended for most of your online assets.
Even when you are on the cloud, your data system and information system architecture should be designed in such a manner as to protect the servers that are critical to keeping your database secure. The use of servers that act as a firewall will ensure that the requests and the traffic headed to your database server are filtered, and you can also control who can access your database.
When you have a robust firewall in place, you should also remember to update and patch it up more regularly. Patching up your firewall will ensure that it has the latest security updates and attack signatures that are known to change very frequently. The hackers will have a more challenging time breaking into your system when their attack style has been updated in the firewall application you use to secure your database.
Use Antivirus Applications
In addition to firewalls, the servers on which your databases reside should have antivirus applications installed. The antivirus applications will ensure that any malicious software and scripts that hackers install on your server to monitor your database are detected before they can steal data from your database.
The use of antivirus applications is essential for keeping your database safe and secure. With the application, you will detect malicious and unauthorized access attempts before they break into your database.
Antivirus software will also keep the server on which your database is held safe and secure. The application will sanitize your server of all traces of illegal access, keeping your database operating in a safe environment. You might often overlook antivirus applications, but it is one of the best ways to ensure that your database is safe and secure.
The database will not be easily broken into when there is no possibility to install malware on your servers. The servers will not get any rootkits installed on them when you have an active antivirus, and as such, the database will be kept safe from all kinds of malicious access and break-ins.
Regular updates are also crucial for your antivirus applications and ensure that you can quickly eliminate rootkits and other malicious software residing on the same servers as your databases.
When you patch up your antivirus application, you will be able to ensure that your database applications are kept safe and secure at all times. Additionally, you must regularly update your antivirus application to prevent hackers from using vulnerabilities in previous versions of the same applications.
Query Validation Before Execution
You should filter all the requests made to the database to ensure that they are not designed with evil intentions. For instance, if your database is being accessed from a web application, the hackers might try to feed it the wrong data. The use of wrong queries can sometimes cause the database to leak information in error messages.
Whenever hackers find such weaknesses in your database, they will be able to break into the database and escalate privileges in the database. The escalation of privileges is supposed to give them more powers and authority than regular users. As such, they can easily make modifications to the database in such a manner as to create new users. When hackers create new users, they will easily modify information on the same database.
The use of validation for all the queries being made on the database ensures that all the SQL injection attacks that might be made on the database are carefully dealt with. The use of query sanitization is also meant to deal with URL injection attacks that modify the nature of requests to trick the servers into revealing data about the design of the database. The use of query validation will also prevent hackers from injecting unwanted requests with their queries.
For instance, feeding the wrong data types to the query might cause the database to run into errors. These errors usually reveal to hackers the weak spots in your database applications, and the hackers will use them to gain access to the database. Any hacker that wants to take advantage of your database will use the wrong entries in the queries to test your database for any weaknesses.
If you do not validate all the queries that are being made to your database, you will have highly exposed your database to many security risks, which will then cause it to become prone to attacks. The database, for instance, should not send back error messages even when it has run into errors while processing a database request. The database should not reveal what caused it to run into an error, and the users should get generalized messages whenever the database experiences an error.
Whenever the database reveals more information about the errors that it has run into, the hackers can easily use the information to develop exploits for attacking and breaking into the database. The reason for query validation is to sanitize all the requests made to the database to prevent hackers from misusing the database. It would be best to filter the queries to avoid any dangerous and potentially hazardous requests from affecting how the database works.
When you have cleaned out all the requests that are being made to your database, you will also prevent potentially harmful requests and queries from being made on your database, which will keep you safe and secure. You can also limit the number of queries that can be made every second, as this will help you prevent denial of service attacks, as we will see in the following section.
Preventing DOS and DDOS: Limiting Queries
You must place an upper limit on the number of queries that can be handled by your database in any given duration. Even when your servers can handle as many requests as possible, limiting the number of requests per second will prevent your database and other resources from getting crippled by denial of service attacks. Denial of service attacks is the kind of attack that occurs whenever the resources have been overwhelmed by too many requests.
For database applications, this is one of the easiest ways to crash the database and prevent it from handling the requests that the valid users make of the system. The application will no longer provide answers to questions being asked once too many requests have crashed the database. Limiting the number of requests that can be made on your database will keep it safe and still operational.
As such, you will still serve your customers and database users even when the amount of traffic is tremendous. Limiting the number of transactions per second also gives you control over the amount of data that can pass over your network each second and prevents tour systems from getting overworked and overloaded.
It would help if you controlled how many database queries are handled every second. When you have a grip on this metric, DOS and DDOS attacks will no longer have to be a concern for you. The database will also keep running more efficiently, and you will not have to worry about hackers trying to take down your database services by overwhelming your servers with too many requests.
When you have a throttle on the requests that you can handle, you will also keep the server on and operational for much longer, which lets you take care of the source of the many requests and deal with them accordingly. When you have a limit on the number of requests allowed by your database, you will get to maintain a safer database that is not easy to crash.
Additionally, any kind of brute-force attacks that hackers might try on your database will not be able to run for long before you notice them when you have placed a limit on the number of requests that it can process in a second. The use of limitations is also helpful in keeping your operational costs low and not leading to spikes in database usage when you are under a denial of service attack.
Better Networks
Your server infrastructure should have networks that are capable of keeping your database safe and secure. Whenever you design databases for your applications and businesses, you should also host them in servers where they are well secured.
The network on which the database is hosted, for a start, should be kept well away from the rest of the applications and servers. Whenever you have a separate network to run and host your database server, you will not experience hacking attacks and other kinds of crippling online attacks.
The use of different networks for your databases will also help keep the data controlled. You will filter traffic coming in and out of the servers easier when you have a specialized network for the database. The kind of requests that are being made on the database could be unique, and the client applications should be able to interact with the database without getting obstructed in any way.
Additionally, it is also essential that you secure your networks by installing safeguards in them. For instance, a network that has been separated from the rest of the company will ensure that you can easily take your database offline when you are under a severe cyber attack. Any changes in the regular running of your digital activities will initiate a shutdown of the network, and the hackers will no longer be able to reach your data. You must design the best kind of network for your database application.
Not only will this improve the performance of your application, but it will also make the security of your database application easier to control. Well-secured networks are a good point of defense for your database applications, and they will ensure that your database can stay safe and secure. When your network has been designed behind a well-secured network, you get to have an additional layer of protection for your data.
It will also be tough to break into your database when the network can detect attacks and illegal entries before they can cause any damage to your database and information systems. Testing the network is also required for your database to be completely safe from all kinds of attacks from the outside. When you test the network, you will discover and cover weak points in your network security before hackers can use them for wrong ends.
Redundancy
A backup plan is essential if you are forced to shut down some of the servers that run your database. Even when some of the servers are offline, you will still need to provide the services that the customers and clients require. Other applications still need to interact with the database to obtain information and retrieve records. Without a backup and disaster recovery plan, you will be able to keep your database safe but still operational.
Even when faced with the worst kind of online attacks, your database will still be accessible. Backup servers are usually beneficial when your database is in heavy demand and has to deal with many requests simultaneously. Some of the scenarios that typically cause your database to come crashing down involve too many client requests, usually known to overload your database.
When you have a backup, your database will still keep on running, and as such, you will not have to stop any of your operations and activities. Your business will keep running smoothly, and you will also get to provide services that your clients require. Your customers will get to access records that they needed no matter how many servers are currently running. Even when you have your database running on several servers, you still need to secure each server.
When you do this, you will be ensuring that your customers can still access your database. Splitting the workload into several servers also enables you to become better prepared for any attacks that might be carried out on your database system by hackers and malware. You can handle a denial of service attack by distributing the load on more servers.
The usual customers and clients will still be able to get the data they need, and they will not even notice that you are under an attack. Being able to handle such kinds of crippling attacks gracefully is the reason for duplicating databases and using several servers to host the same data. It keeps your data safe and accessible even when you are under a denial of service attack.
Backups of your data will also act as a reliable point of recovery when your servers have been attacked. If one of the copies of your database gets deleted due to an attack, the backups will be one of how you will be able to get back in operation. These backups will ensure that you do not lose any data, and you get to continue running your operations from wherever you left off. The backups are also valuable for ensuring that your operations can keep on running even when your other servers have been taken offline.
Whenever you have backups and redundant servers for your databases, you will run maintenance on your databases more efficiently, and you will also keep your operational costs low. As such, your database operational costs will be kept low, and you will be assured of the survival of your data even when some of the servers and copies of your database have been corrupted.
Cloud Hosting
Hosting your database on the cloud is one of the better alternatives for keeping it safe and secure. When you have your database running on the cloud, you get to take advantage of the security features that the cloud service provider has to prevent their clients from being attacked.
When you are running your database on the cloud, you will also make your data accessible to more client applications and devices. For instance, you will be able to access the same database from mobile applications and web applications from the ease and comfort of the cloud. The cloud will also be able to handle a massive number of queries per second with much ease.
Additionally, you can also scale up your cloud to take care of all kinds of usage scenarios without having to worry about loads. Whenever you have your database hosted on the cloud, you can also make the data available to more customers. Your partners and the public will quickly hook into your API and build applications that add capabilities to the database.
Modern cloud service providers have also been known to provide database services separately. When you have a cloud subscription, you can quickly provision and deploy a database for your business. There is very little work involved in getting the cloud working, and you can easily extend it to include more features.
Additionally, you can interface the cloud with any application and client you need to use in your business. If you intend to use the cloud database with the other enterprise applications that you use in your work, the cloud will ensure that you can easily connect your database to the applications that you work with in your office.
The use of the cloud will ensure that your database is safe and secure by enforcing more robust and more powerful encryption strategies on the data. The cloud has better encryption for the data stored on it, which means that hackers will not even be able to intercept the information being hosted on the cloud. Hen you have the cloud to hold all your data for you, the hackers will not even be able to find out how your data is being routed.
The cloud service providers have been known to have better networking services, making their services super-friendly and very efficient. The high performance of the servers and the networks also means that your databases will be straightforward to access. The applications that you build to work with the database will be very responsive and reliable.
The reliability of the applications will be one of the other reasons that the cloud should be your primary choice whenever you need to host a database. The use of the cloud will keep your database safe and running effectively on data of a vast scale. No matter how large your database grows, the use of the cloud will ensure that you have an easy time managing the massive datasets.
With the cloud, you will be able to use the cloud on your database better, and handling the data on a large scale will be more secure. Security for your database is a cause for concern, and as such, you should take the time and invest in more secure means of hosting and securing your database. When you have the cloud, do not forget to use additional security services and identity and access management mechanisms.
These services will ensure that only the authorized users will access your database, and whenever they are making any changes, they should be logged, and their IP addresses noted down. The use of the cloud for hosting your database also reduces downtime for your applications. It ensures that your data is always readily available and accessible no matter what time it is. Businesses that need to keep their operations running round the clock will hugely benefit from using the cloud to host their database.
The database keeps getting updated all the time, and the use of the cloud will ensure that you always have an accurate snapshot of the current state of the database. Whenever you use the cloud for your database, you will be adding a layer of protection for all your data. You will also be ensuring that any users of your database get to access the data without having to wait for the server to handle other requests.
Cloud-based databases are also known to be a lot more efficient and effective. They are easier to scale up and can handle more customers at the same time. Scaling them up and improving them to secure them better is also possible, and they are not rigid or unchangeable. Making changes to your database schema and design on the cloud takes a few hours, and you can quickly implement changes and improvements that you have designed to upgrade the security of your database.
Conclusion
Database security is essential, no matter the size or purpose of your database. Taking steps and measures to secure your database is very important. When you have a secure database, you get to uphold the value of the stored data on the database. To secure your database, there are several things that you can do. For instance, you can encrypt the data on the database or the queries and responses as they are being sent from the database and the client application.
When you do this, you will be able to ensure that your database is secure. You will also be able to control the people who are allowed to access the information on your database. When you do this, you will keep out hackers and other malicious individuals that might be trying to play around with your database. SQL injection attacks have been on the rise, and website and web application users have been known to test your database security from the queries that they feed your online assets.
When you have proper security measures integrated into the very core of your database application, you get to secure it better and keep out hackers and other attackers that might be trying to access your data. Database security is essential, and you should not ignore the importance of securing your databases.
