Database security: How to protect your assets

A mature database security strategy is essential if you don’t want your data to be at the mercy of malicious actors. Without the right protections in place, you’re leaving the door open to potential breaches, exfiltration, and even data loss.

In this guide, we explore ‌strategies to protect your databases, including software solutions, security protocols, policies, and best practices.

What is database security?

Database security refers to any solution designed to protect company databases from internal and external threats. This includes security protocols you might apply to your underlying architecture and third-party tools that help shore up your defences.

While protecting against hackers and other malicious actors is an important part of any strategy, database security is also about developing strict internal protocols to maintain your data’s integrity and confidentiality while ensuring critical information is available when you need it most. 

While robust security strategies can often feel like the enemy of accessibility, the key is finding the sweet spot between keeping your data safe and making it available when needed.

Why is database security important?

Compromising on database security comes with serious risks. Here are a few ways that insufficient protection can affect your business:

• Financial losses: Security breaches come with significant financial consequences. Malicious actors can halt your operations, and identifying the source of the problem and remedying it can be troublesome. Depending on the scale of the breach, you may also need to pay regulatory fines and penalties. 
• Reputational damage: Customers who learn that their private information is at risk are much less likely to trust your brand. These relationships are extremely difficult to repair.
• Legal penalties: Regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, and CCPA have severe penalties for non-compliance. If you’re involved in a breach, you may have to pay some serious fines.

Database security best practices

When designing your database security strategy, consider these best practices.

Encrypt data everywhere

Encryption protects data by making sure it remains obfuscated even if it’s hijacked. Many regulatory bodies also require that you encrypt any sensitive data, both in transit and at rest. Well-designed encryption frameworks are even more important in highly regulated fields like finance or healthcare, or when using a distributed cloud database security strategy.

Ensure that any security policy you create also includes guidelines for encryption management, so even if the worst should happen, sensitive information doesn’t make it into the hands of the wrong people.

Deploy database firewalls

Database firewalls monitor incoming and outgoing traffic for warning signs of malicious activity and block any suspicious access attempts. They’re an efficient way to protect against common attack patterns. Modern firewalls are even capable of fully inspecting data packets, rather than merely performing routine checks on IP addresses and ports. 

Segment your servers

Segmentation is the practice of breaking down your system into compartmentalized groups to limit what hackers can access. Even if a malicious actor breaches your defences, they won’t be able to move through your entire ecosystem.

Threats that stay local are much easier to deal with, so consider splitting up your application and database servers so that even if one layer is compromised, the wider database is still secure. Though be careful not to make each segment too difficult for authorized users to access, as this can lead to data silos. 

Frequently back up your data

Backups are copies of your data and architecture that can save the day if an outside actor or internal incident deletes or corrupts your files. When you regularly back up your database, if something goes wrong, like ransomware making the database inaccessible, you can just load the most recent version of your system. Encrypting your backups is even more secure, as anyone with knowledge of your ecosystem won’t be able to jeopardize the restoration.

Database security challenges

To help you build an effective strategy, here are some of the most common challenges of deploying database security solutions:

• Insider threats: Not all threats come from rogue actors like hackers. One of the most common security threats is when someone with legitimate access uses it to steal your data or corrupt your systems. To avoid this, set up a permissions framework that allows you to monitor user behavior and track who has access to what.
• Misconfiguration: Human error can often lead to vulnerabilities from configuration issues. To check for potential issues, conduct regular system architecture audits and use security tools to identify and mitigate any risks.
• Buffer overflow exploitation: Most systems use sections of computing memory called buffers to temporarily store data as it moves between locations. Hackers can overwhelm these buffers to create vulnerabilities. Deploy intrusion detection systems to identify unusual queries and regularly scan for vulnerabilities to remove any low-hanging fruit hackers can take advantage of.
• Malware: Malicious programs like malware and ransomware can infiltrate your systems and corrupt or exfiltrate data from your warehouses and lakes. Educate employees about leading cybersecurity best practices and deploy antivirus software to protect your network.

Automate secure data movement with Fivetran

Well-designed security frameworks secure your databases and protect data at rest. But you still need to ensure that data in transit has the same level of protection. 

Fivetran Security features reliable, fully automated end-to-end data pipelines that include enterprise-grade encryption and SSH tunneling. The platform also fully complies with regulations like SOC 2 and HIPAA. Fivetran meets your specific needs with features such as private networking, VPN tunnels, and hybrid deployment to customize your systems exactly as required. 

To see how Fivetran can improve the security of your database infrastructure, request a demo today. 

FAQs

What are the methods used to maintain a secure database?

There are many ways to boost database security, including encryption, user authentication controls, and role-based access management. Complement these efforts with regular system audits, and be sure to update your database security software frequently to patch out any potential vulnerabilities.

What are database controls?

Database controls are systems designed to secure databases. They allow you to edit or add features to your database to improve the protection level of your data.

What are some examples of database security? 

Common examples of database security features include database firewalls, segmented networks, multi-factor authentication, user-access controls, and encryption standards.

[CTA_MODULE]