The significance of Access Control in Database security

Task 1

Introduction

Database security can be defined as the measures that an organization must take so its databases can be protected from intrusions and threats. Threats can either be external or internal. The purpose of ensuring database security is to prevent the deliberate attacks of hackers and preventing the misuse of data. Again, access must be given only to authorized individuals so that the incidences of data breaches can be controlled. Important information and sensitive customer-related must be secured devotedly. Access control can be divided into two components. These are authorization and authentication. The authentication method helps in verifying the real identity of an individual. On the other hand, authorization means whether a user ought to be allowed before he or she is attempting to access data for transaction-related purposes. Access control can be divided into various types, such as Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), Discretionary Access Control (DAC), and Mandatory Access Control (MAC), and so on (Sandhu & Samarati, 1994). In this paper, the rationale behind choosing the topic shall be outlined, and further research will be conducted to get a comprehensive view of the chosen topic.

The rationale behind the topic selection

In the past few years, there have been continuous attacks on US-based organizations, and attackers have gained access to highly sensitive data. It has further caused economic, legal as well as reputational damages. Although companies use relational databases for storing sensitive data, it has made fewer efforts to secure those databases. Despite increasing regulations and penalties, data breaches continue to occur. Notably, in the U.S, the incident of data breaches from 2013-2019 has increased. The average annual is 1251 data breaches, and the commonly affected businesses operate in the healthcare and banking industry (Statista. 2020). Therefore, the need to get real insights regarding the actions taken to secure databases in the U.S arises. Access control is one such method that has proven useful for restricting access to unauthorized people. Only, the privileged users must gain access to the company’s databases. Therefore, the topic has been selected to understand the real impact of various layers of security.

Importance of the research topic

US-based organizations operating across a range of industries are prone to severe attacks. Usually, ransomware, along with with breached firewalls, can cause data loss because it might corrupt files and cause severe programming errors. One of the fundamental steps of ensuring security is to identify the types of users that should and should not have access to company data (Bertino & Sandhu, 2005). It is paramount that an organization can ensure security only when the mechanisms are compliant with security regulations. Various concepts associated with access control and database security shall be explored in this paper. Moreover, the topic has been selected so that organizations that are facing database security issues can take action to mitigate the issue. The range of solutions provided by access control mechanisms within a firm shall be identified. Further research on this topic would allow us to understand the practical mechanisms of access control. Views and opinions of various authors would be analyzed. The findings of the research would help to understand the existing research and gaps that still exist.

References

Bertino, E., & Sandhu, R. (2005). Database security-concepts, approaches, and challenges. IEEE Transactions on Dependable and secure computing, 2(1), 2-19.

Sandhu, R. S., & Samarati, P. (1994). Access control: principle and practice. IEEE communications magazine, 32(9), 40-48.

U.S. data breaches by industry 2018 | Statista. (2020). Statista. Retrieved 27 February 2020, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/273572/number-of-data-breaches-in-the-united-states-by-business/