General Security Needs

GENERAL SECURITY NEEDS

Security within the DBMS protects the integrity of the data, records and databases. It can give encryption protection at the data level and permits organizations to have another layer at which to manage and control all access to the information. Major elements of DBMS security include user authentication, user authorization, encryption of data and/or user-id and password, and the auditing user actions. Without database security, the database and/or data can easily become corrupted, whether intentional or not. It is important to restrict access to the database from unauthorized users to protect sensitive data.

Database security provides:

• Protection of data independent of the application, programming language, database tools, etc

• Protection against potential legal actions relating to data integrity or privacy issues.

• One layer of the ‘defense in depth’ strategy of the Security Domain.

• Privacy of information passing over the public networks.

• Auditing and enforcement of licensing contracts.

• Notification of potential intrusion attempts.

Authentication

DBMS provides authentication and support the ‘defense in depth’ strategy of the overarching state security protocols specified by state security standards. Authenticating users is the basis for providing accountability. Allowing only authenticated users to access system resources protects those resources from inappropriate access in a healthcare database. Authentication is a way of implementing decisions about whom to trust. Authentication methods seek to guarantee the identity of system users.

Authorization

A user’s function within an organization determines his or her authorized level of access to applications, system resources and the database. The user’s authorizations can be set at the database level by conceding privileges and roles to the database user-id and by setting the proper access controls on specific database objects. Authorization capabilities...