What are the most important security controls for protecting your databases from insider threats?

IMO this is the most important security control for protecting databases from insider threats, this also involves restricting access to sensitive data, monitoring user activities, and regularly reviewing and updating access permissions to ensure that only authorized users can access specific data. However, it's essential to complement these measures with auditing and logging mechanisms to detect and investigate unauthorized or suspicious activities effectively. Additionally, having a robust data backup and recovery strategy ensures that even in the event of a security incident, data can be restored to its previous state, minimizing the impact of insider threats on business operations."

In a healthcare organization's database system, access control and privilege management are crucial to safeguarding sensitive patient information. Using role-based access control (RBAC), the system administrator assigns roles, Physicians, for example, have access to patient medical records for treatment purposes, while nurses have access to patient charts for monitoring vital signs. Administrators have broader access for system maintenance. Regular reviews ensure access rights align with employees' job roles and responsibilities. Enforcing the principle of least privilege ensures that users only have access to the data necessary for their tasks, reducing the risk of unauthorized data access.

Access control to the database, having these points as recommendations : * Separation of roles between application users, database owner users, named users, and named users * Assignment of least viable privilege (Grant all should not be used) * Control of session downtime for named users, schedule of usage on business days, e.g. if working hours are Monday to Friday between 0800 - 1800 no one should be logged on after the end of the working day.

Implement strong access controls, conduct regular audits, monitor user activities, encrypt sensitive data, and educate employees on security best practices.

Implement strong access controls to restrict access to sensitive data to only authorized personnel. This includes role-based access control (RBAC), least privilege principle, and regular access reviews to ensure that users only have access to the data necessary for their job responsibilities.

La auditoría y el registro son como el sistema de vigilancia de nuestras bases de datos, registrando meticulosamente cada movimiento que ocurre dentro de ellas. Esto incluye quién accedió a qué datos, cuándo lo hicieron, cómo lo hicieron y por qué motivo. Podemos configurar herramientas nativas o de terceros para habilitar la auditoría y el registro en nuestras bases de datos. Estas herramientas nos permiten capturar una amplia gama de eventos relevantes, como intentos de inicio de sesión, cambios en los privilegios de acceso, modificaciones de datos e incluso consultas sospechosas.

Login on databases must be controlled by using all the DB security features, like password policy, auditing, etc. Also, if the DB is under Windows environment, the Active Directory features also contribute to the security and tracking.

Auditing and logging play a crucial role in recording and reviewing activities within your databases. Utilize native or third-party tools to enable robust auditing and logging mechanisms. Configure these systems to capture essential events, including login attempts, privilege changes, data modifications, and suspicious queries. Regularly review audit logs to monitor user behavior, identify anomalies, and investigate incidents

Implement robust auditing and logging mechanisms to track database activities. This includes monitoring user activities, privilege escalations, and changes to sensitive data. Analyzing audit logs can help detect suspicious behavior and unauthorized access attempts by insiders.

Critical for monitoring user activities and detecting potential unauthorized or malicious actions within the database environment. This control aids with forensic analysis and helps to determine the extent of a security breach.

Regular backup for databases protects your data and enables database recovery when required. Database backup is crucial to handle events like accidental deletion, ransomware attacks or others. If you have a backup, you will always have an option to restore data, maintain data integrity and in cases like ransomware attacks, you don't need to pay ransom.

Data backup and recovery are integral processes involving the creation and restoration of database copies to safeguard against data loss, corruption, or deletion. Employ various methods and tools, including full, incremental, or differential backups, snapshots, replication, or mirroring, to ensure comprehensive data protection.

Period record snapshots fits into the backup category for me. I created several databases for people who all thought they knew what data needed to be in there, and it wasn't uncommon for them to delete or write over their own records. Even when I built warnings and checks into the most obvious places. Having a snapshot of all the data taken weekly or some other time period allowed me to go back and recover 'lost' data.

Existen diversos métodos y herramientas que podemos utilizar para realizar copias de seguridad y recuperación de datos. Podemos optar por copias de seguridad completas, incrementales o diferenciales, instantáneas, replicación o incluso la creación de reflejos. Cada uno de estos métodos tiene sus propias ventajas y es crucial elegir el más adecuado según las necesidades específicas de nuestras bases de datos y la infraestructura que tengamos disponible.

Frequently creating backups of your database guarantees the ability to restore data if it's accidentally deleted, corrupted, or tampered with by insiders, thereby reducing the severity of security incidents.

Training staff on security protocols, emphasizing the significance of safeguarding confidential information, and highlighting the ramifications of insider risks can cultivate a culture of heightened security awareness across your organization.

Regular security training sessions have significantly uplifted our team's vigilance against insider threats. For example, after implementing a quarterly quiz on security best practices, we noticed a marked decrease in risky behaviors. This proactive approach has cultivated a strong security culture within our team, proving that awareness is as crucial as technical safeguards.

Human is the major factor of insider threat, so awareness and eduction practices have to be considered to mitigate insider threats. A number of ways can be done such as: clear policy and accountability of non-compliance, regular education to staff, attestation. The outcome to achieve is to minimize risk of improper activities.

Another good benefit of user education, is that you learn the wrong type of things a user might think they should be doing, in order to stop it. And also learn about how a user wishes a system worked, and you control the interface, you can often make good modifications that you hadn't thought of before.

Employee training and awareness are key elements in mitigating insider threats. It empower employees with knowledge and skills necessary to recognize and respond to security risks effectively. Examples are: 1. Educate employees about relevant data privacy regulations, such as GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA 2. Educate employees on the importance of data classification and handling procedures 3. Provide training on incident response procedures and escalations 4. Provide guidance on creating strong passwords and avoid sharing or reuse 5. Train employees to recognize social engineering techniques 6. Conducting training sessions to educate employees about the risks of phishing attacks 7. Providing training on organizational security policies and procedures

I recommend regular database audit tests to revalidate the effectiveness of database security tools, for example monthly database activity monitoring tests to ensure back end database activities are being captured, malicious activity can be detected and alerted to the appropriate stakeholders. The outcome of these tests provide feedback on what needs to be improved to make the system fully robust. The worst time to discover that your database security monitoring does not work optimally is after malicious activity has occurred.

Having a robust incident response plan in place has been important. We experienced a minor data breach, and thanks to our preparedness, we contained the issue swiftly, minimizing impact. This incident underscored the importance of regular drills and a well-coordinated team, enhancing our ability to respond to threats efficiently and effectively, thereby safeguarding our data integrity.

A strong user interface that limits the types of errors commonly done by those who were previously only experienced using spreadsheets to enter data. Things like drop downs to make the most common entries more standard. Warning message boxes when someone is overwriting something when it is likely they intended to create a new record. And making sure invalid types of information isn't being entered, or blank entries, that could break queries.

Let´s not forget about the proper patch management, this is very important and most of DBA´s neglect to keep informed and update on this important issue.

If the data is manipulated by the administrator of the database, a copy image should be created for the backup of the data. Major changes should require a key which will be generated for a specific period of time