Database
Description
What is Data?
In simple words, data can be facts related to any object in consideration. For example, your name, age, height, weight, etc. are some data related to you. A picture, image, file, pdf, etc. can also be considered data.
A database is an organized collection of data, generally stored and accessed electronically from a computer system. Where databases are more complex they are often developed using formal design and modeling techniques
A database is a data structure that stores organized information. Most databases contain multiple tables, which may each include several different fields. For example, a company database may include tables for products, employees, and financial records
Types of Databases
Here are some popular types of databases.
Distributed databases:
A distributed database is a type of database that has contributions from the common database and information captured by local computers. In this type of database system, the data is not in one place and is distributed at various organizations.
Relational databases:
This type of database defines database relationships in the form of tables. It is also called Relational DBMS, which is the most popular DBMS type in the market. Database example of the RDBMS system include MySQL, Oracle, and Microsoft SQL Server database.
Object-oriented databases:
This type of computers database supports the storage of all data types. The data is stored in the form of objects. The objects to be held in the database have attributes and methods that define what to do with the data. PostgreSQL is an example of an object-oriented relational DBMS.
Centralized database:
It is a centralized location, and users from different backgrounds can access this data. This type of computers databases store application procedures that help users access the data even from a remote location.
Open-source databases:
This kind of database stored information related to operations. It is mainly used in the field of marketing, employee relations, customer service, of databases.
Cloud databases:
A cloud database is a database which is optimized or built for such a virtualized environment. There are so many advantages of a cloud database, some of which can pay for storage capacity and bandwidth. It also offers scalability on-demand, along with high availability.
Data warehouses:
Data Warehouse is to facilitate a single version of truth for a company for decision making and forecasting. A Data warehouse is an information system that contains historical and commutative data from single or multiple sources. Data Warehouse concept simplifies the reporting and analysis process of the organization.
NoSQL databases:
NoSQL database is used for large sets of distributed data. There are a few big data performance problems that are effectively handled by relational databases. This type of computers database is very efficient in analyzing large-size unstructured data.
Graph databases:
A graph-oriented database uses graph theory to store, map, and query relationships. These kinds of computers databases are mostly used for analyzing interconnections. For example, an organization can use a graph database to mine data about customers from social media.
OLTP databases:
OLTP another database type which able to perform fast query processing and maintaining data integrity in multi-access environments.
Personal database:
A personal database is used to store data stored on personal computers that are smaller and easily manageable. The data is mostly used by the same department of the company and is accessed by a small group of people.
Multimodal database:
The multimodal database is a type of data processing platform that supports multiple data models that define how the certain knowledge and information in a database should be organized and arranged.
Document/JSON database:
In a document-oriented database, the data is kept in document collections, usually using the XML, JSON, BSON formats. One record can store as much data as you want, in any data type (or types) you prefer.
Hierarchical:
This type of DBMS employs the “parent-child” relationship of storing data. Its structure is like a tree with nodes representing records and branches representing fields. The windows registry used in Windows XP is a hierarchical database example.
Network DBMS:
This type of DBMS supports many-to-many relations. It usually results in complex database structures. RDM Server is an example of database management system that implements the network model.
Database Components
There are five main components of a database:
Hardware:
The hardware consists of physical, electronic devices like computers, I/O devices, storage devices, etc. This offers the interface between computers and real-world systems.
Software:
This is a set of programs used to manage and control the overall database. This includes the database software itself, the Operating System, the network software used to share the data among users, and the application programs for accessing data in the database.
Data:
Data is a raw and unorganized fact that is required to be processed to make it meaningful. Data can be simple at the same time unorganized unless it is organized. Generally, data comprises facts, observations, perceptions, numbers, characters, symbols, images, etc.
What is database assessment?
Database security assessment is fundamentally a process that measures database risk at a point in time. … This summary is essentially a snapshot of overall risk assessment information that management can use to prioritize the steps required to improve database security.
Database Security Assessment Tools (DBSAT)
The Database Security Assessment Tool (DBSAT) is provided by Oracle as a utility to help you check for common database security issues, as well as helping to identify sensitive data stored in the database.
There are various tools that can be used to ensure the database security and are recommended by many cyber security professionals and ethical hackers. Some of the top database security tools are discussed below:
MSSQL DataMask:
Every organization makes the common mistake of using live data in test databases. To avoid this, MSSQL Data Mask provides developers the ability to mask data for development, testing, or outsourcing projects, involving the SQL Server databases. MSSQL Data Mask has tools that are categorized for data masking and is used for protecting data that is classified as personally identifiable data, sensitive personal data or commercially sensitive data.
Scuba:
Scuba is free database security software tool from the vendor Imperva that is used for analyzing more than 2,000 common problems such as weak passwords, known configuration risks, and missing patches on a range of database platforms. Scuba is being used across enterprises as a database patch up enhancer.
AppDetectivePro:
AppDetectivePRO is a database and big data store scanner that can immediately uncover configuration mistakes, identification and access control issues, missing patches or any toxic combination of settings that could lead to escalation-of-privilege or denial-of-service attacks, data leakage or unauthorized modification of data.
Nmap:
Nmap (“Network Mapper”) is a free and open source utility for network discovery and security auditing. Many systems and network administrators also find it useful for tasks such as network inventory, managing service upgrade schedules, and monitoring host or service uptime. Nmap uses raw IP packets in novel ways to determine what hosts are available on the network, what services (application name and version) those hosts are offering, what operating systems (and OS versions) they are running, what type of packet filters/firewalls are in use, and dozens of other characteristics.
Zenmap:
Zenmap is the official Nmap Security Scanner GUI. It is a multi-platform (Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, BSD, etc.) free and open source application which aims to make Nmap easy for beginners to use while providing advanced features for experienced Nmap users. It enables to save frequently used scans as a profile to make them easy to run repeatedly. It contains a number of very important features such as scanning and detecting database instances and vulnerabilities.
BSQL Hacker:
The BSQL Hacker is a SQL Injection Tester that handles blind SQL injection, time-based blind SQL injection, deep blind SQL injection, and error-based SQL injection attacks. The software is designed in such a way that in can also handle Oracle and MySQL databases along with automatically extracting database data and schemas.
SQLRECON:
SQLRECON is a database discovery tool that performs active and passive scans of a network to identify SQL Server instances. Due to the proliferation of personal firewalls, inconsistent network library configurations, and multiple-instance support, SQL Server installations are becoming increasingly difficult to discover, assess, and maintain. SQLRecon is designed to remedy this problem by combining all known means of SQL Server/MSDE discovery into a single tool which can be used to ferret out servers you never knew existed on your network so you can properly secure them.
Oracle Auditing Tools:
The Oracle Auditing Tools is a toolkit that could be used to audit security within Oracle database servers. This open-source toolkit includes password-attack tools, command-line query tools, and TNS-listener query tools to test the security of Oracle database configurations. Moreover, the tools are Java based and were tested on both Windows and Linux.
OScanner:
OScanner is an Oracle assessment framework developed in Java. It has a plugin-based architecture and comes with a couple of plugins that currently do:
- Sid Enumeration
- Passwords tests (common & dictionary)
- Enumerate Oracle version
- Enumerate account roles
- Enumerate account privileges
- Enumerate account hashes
- Enumerate audit information
- Enumerate password policies
- Enumerate database links
The results are given in a graphical Java tree.
DB Defence:
DbDefence is an Easy-to-use, affordable, and effective security solution for encrypting complete databases and protecting its schema within the MS SQL Server. It allows database administrators and developers to encrypt databases completely. Db defence protects the database from unauthorized access, modification, and distribution. It offers a long and strong array of database security features such as strong encryption, protection of SQL from SQL Profiler.
HOW TO DOWNLOAD DATABASE ASSESSMENT TOOLS
1.Open browser
2.Type www.google.com
3.type these commands intitle:index.of? put the name of any tool you desire,the download page will appear and you download any one you like.
BENEFITS OF DATABASE ASSESSMENT TOOLS
- Better Data Transferring:
Database management creates a place where users have an advantage of more and better managed data. Thus making it possible for end-users to have a quick look and to respond fast to any changes made in their environment. - Better Data Security:
As number of users increases data transferring or data sharing rate also increases thus increasing the risk of data security. It is widely used in corporation world where companies invest money, time and effort in large amount to ensure data is secure and is used properly. A Database Management System (DBMS) provide a better platform for data privacy and security policies thus, helping companies to improve Data Security. - Better data integration:
Due to Database Management System we have an access to well managed and synchronized form of data thus it makes data handling very easy and gives integrated view of how a particular organization is working and also helps to keep a track on how one segment of the company affects other segment. - Minimized Data Inconsistency:
Data inconsistency occurs between files when different versions of the same data appear in different places.
For Example, data inconsistency occurs when a student name is saved as “John Wayne” on a main computer of school but on teacher registered system same student name is “William J. Wayne”, or when the price of a product is $86.95 in local system of company and its National sales office system shows the same product price as $84.95.
So if a database is properly designed then Data inconsistency can be greatly reduced hence minimizing data inconsistency. - Faster data Access:
The Data base management system (DBMS) helps to produce quick answers to database queries thus making data accessing faster and more accurate. For example, to read or update the data. For example, end users, when dealing with large amounts of sale data, will have enhanced access to the data, enabling faster sales cycle.
Some queries may be like:- What is the increase of the sale in last three months?
- What is the bonus given to each of the salespeople in last five months?
- How many customers have credit score of 850 or more?
- Better decision making:
Due to DBMS now we have Better managed data and Improved data accessing because of which we can generate better quality information hence on this basis better decisions can be made.
Better Data quality improves accuracy, validity and time it takes to read data.
DBMS does not guarantee data quality, it provides a framework to make it is easy to improve data quality . - Increased end-user productivity:
The data which is available with the help of combination of tools which transform data into useful information, helps end user to make quick, informative and better decisions that can make difference between success and failure in the global economy. - Simple:
Data base management system (DBMS) gives simple and clear logical view of data. Many operations like insertion, deletion or creation of file or data are easy to implement.
Drop your comment
