Database Security

Every single online business keeps databases. These databases hold sensitive information about their customers, including contact information, social security numbers, driver license numbers and credit card data. Since these databases hold sensitive data, keeping them secure is a top priority. This security is ensured in several ways. The first crucial aspect of its security is by controlling access to the database. This can be done physically, such as keeping the medium holding the database in a locked room and limiting access to only those who need it. This can also be done with software, such as only allowing certain computers or users access. This is is accomplished with authentication. Essentially it is a way of ensuring that the person who is accessing the database is authentic, or in other words this person should have access to the database. Since many people can have access to the database, auditing the database becomes necessary. This means that records should be kept about who entered the database and what was changed so fallacies can be corrected. Of course, someone unauthorized may be able to gain access to the database, therefore all data stored should be encrypted to prevent its contents from being read by unauthorized parties. The final part of database security is to ensure the integrity of the data. This can be accomplished with a CRC algorithm. This algorithm is a mathematical calculation that generates a CRC value for a certain set of data. This CRC value is attached to the end of the data. When the data is read, the CRC value is recalculated. If the new CRC value doesn't match the recorded one then the data has been corrupted and hence the integrity of the database has been comprimised.