A database audit monitors access and actions performed on a database to prevent theft and unauthorized changes. It is managed by a program and records high-level actions, identifying users. The audit can also help identify the cause of database corruption.
A database audit is a database security audit that involves several aspects of monitoring. It allows administrators to control access, know who is using the database and what users are doing with the database. Checking is done to prevent database theft and also to prevent users from messing with the database code. Some of the monitoring aspects involved in a database audit include identifying users, logging actions performed on the database, and auditing database changes. A database audit is rarely performed by one person; it is most often managed by a program.
A variety of users access databases associated with large companies or websites on a daily basis. These users are able to view the data and make high- or low-level changes to the information based on their access level, and can store the data in other programs. Without some form of protection, the risk of data theft is very high, because no user could be affected in case of information theft.
When a database auditing program is installed, this program creates a trace that audits all users. A basic form of protection is for audit to identify all users and check what each user does. Low-level functions are not normally monitored. This is because the functions pose no threat and because these functions are performed so regularly that the audit program may be overwhelmed with the amount of data it has to monitor.
In addition to knowing what the user is doing, the driver will record the actions performed on the database. For example, whenever a user makes a large change to the database, the driver will watch the user and show that the user made the change. Database auditing can be set to fire whenever a high-level action is performed, so there is no chance that the action will be lost from auditing.
These database audits, unless the database is particularly small with few users accessing it, are rarely performed by one person. This is because one person cannot audit all changes or identify all users without a high potential for inaccuracy. A schedule also ensures that only potentially dangerous or harmful changes are logged.
While theft is the primary reason to run a database audit, it’s not the only reason. When the database changes, a badly coded section can corrupt all the information in the database. With high-level actions like this logged, the reviewer can place blame on the user who made the change, and appropriate action can be taken.
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