Data management in Database security

Introduction

Database security entails a broad range of information security protocols with the aim of protecting the databases against the compromises of confidentiality, availability, and integrity. The databases include the data itself; the applications used in the database, the database systems and servers, and any other associated network links. There are many processes and controls involved in the database security that can be technical, administrative, or physical. Many organizations face database security challenges that arise as a result of a combination of issues that business face today. Database security goes beyond ensuring compliance, integration, and protection of the sensitive data from cyber attacks (Rob & Coronel, 2000). It requires improving the security measures for the business to maintain a competitive edge.

Database security is an essential component of all the major operations of the overall IT security strategies. There are many security risks associated with database systems. There can be unauthorized use of the database that renders the data to risk of hacking. The unauthorized access to a database may result in inappropriate access to sensitive data or change of the structures and security configurations (Kumar, Krishna & Reddy, 2015). Sometimes there are malware infections that cause leakage or disclosure of data, deletion, or interruption of data within the database. Other security issues include the physical damage to the database servers as a result of unauthorized access. Among the most effective data compromise is the corruption or loss of data. There are effective methods of information and data control that help in ensuring data security in the databases. They include; access control, auditing, authentication, encryption, integrity controls, and use of backups. The methods outlined ensure that data is secure and only authorized persons have access to it. Data management is a critical aspect of database security since it ensures that there are no compromises of confidentiality, availability, and integrity. The paper provides a discussion of data management as an aspect of database security.

According to Rouse (2010), data management involves the processes of controlling the information generated from the operations within an organization. The control process involves the acquiring, validation, storage, protecting, and the processing of data. The processes ensure that the data is accessible, reliable, and timely to ensure that it meets the needs of the users. Data management is important in the operations of an organization. Data is one of the most important valuable resources of an organization. When fully leveraged, it helps in controlling the costs, understanding the clients, and improving the bottom line of an organization.

Good data management procedures ensure that the data available for analysis and reporting is complete, correct, and verifiable. In terms of completeness, the data acquired should not be lost or misplaced so that it will always be available for use by the user. The data should be correct in the sense that the differences that arise between the recorded data and the stored data in the database are justifiable. Verification of the data attempts to show the relationship between the original data and the final data in the database (Pinfield, Cox & Smith, 2014).

Good management of data helps to ensure that data analysis procedures use the correct data and information that have relevance to the analysis processes. Data analysis should have no errors and repeatable at a later time. Correct data documentation ensures that the user can get similar results in other situations. Data management also ensures that the confidentiality of the data is secure.

A well-planned data management procedure ensures good quality data and its availability for analysis. A poor plan of data management is expensive and increases the risk of data loss as well as lowering the quality of data. Data management entails the processes of error checking, data correction, and documentation (Tianjing, et. al., 2015). Checking of data is essential since it ensures consistency and completeness of the data items in the record.

All the data in the electronic form can have backups as mitigation for accidental loss of data or failures in data transfer. The backups are useful in instances whereby the primary data storage devices malfunction. The other forms of data like paper documents can also have backups in an organized manner for easy retrieval. Confidentiality is a critical aspect of data management. Only the authorized personnel should have access to data and should have an understanding of the importance of its confidentiality.

Data security management helps to maintain the integrity of data and ensures that the data is not accessible by unauthorized parties. The measures of data security ensure the privacy and also the protection of data. The increasing advancement of internet technologies poses a risk to data security. It is due to the emergence of many methods of data compromise that arise from malware and hackers. It is, therefore, necessary to utilize the appropriate data management measures as the use of firewalls and data encryption. Encryption of information makes it unreadable to a person with no access. Encryption allows only the approved party to decode the unreadable text using a key. Thus, only the persons with the key can have access to the information (Laudon & Laudon, 2002).

Authentication is also an effective measure in data security management. The process makes it easy to have access to data on daily basis by use of a password. Only the users with the right password can sign in to the accounts for retrieval of information. The most applicable form of protecting data is by use of security software. The options provided by the software are a sign-on to an account, the rewriting software, and being able to control the security options from a remote. The other option is the use of an IP security. It helps to protect the data from a hacker in transit.

Importance of data management

The major reason for managing data is to keep it protected due to the many hackers that target it for breaching. Any attempt to compromise data security results to a loss in an organization. According to IDC, the information processed globally is likely to hit 35,000 Exabyte by 2020 (Wise, 2008).Thus, there is an increase in the volumes of data processed thereby facilitating the need for data management. The loss of such volumes of data can affect the major operations within the organizations.

Every organization requires reviewing its systems and data management processes on a regular basis. The increase in the volume and value of information demands an up-to-date data protection and recovery plan. Data management in an organization ensures that the data processing is as efficient as possible. For data to be available for use, it undergoes through various processes that depend on the data management system in place. A poor system exposes the data for compromise or total damage. Thus, the processes involved have to be as efficient as possible to make sure that it serves the user as required. The processes involved in data management helps to maintain the integrity and internal consistency. The basic principle in data security management is to maintain the data as it was in the primary form. It allows flexibility in data processing and still ensures reproduction from the source data while maintaining all the details.

Data management in the database environments where security is important ensures continuous monitoring for compliance with standards. Security compliance is a class of procedures that deal with patch management and the review and management of permissions of the objects within a database. Compliance monitoring has a similarity to vulnerability assessment. Vulnerability assessment is a process of determining risks. On the other hand, compliance monitoring is a continuous process of risk assessment (Data security management, 2015). The utilization of the two procedures in data management ensures that the data is secure and available to the user as required.

Challenges facing data management

IT professionals face many challenges in data management since they not only provide data storage, but also ensure security, and backup of the data. They also have to ensure that users can easily retrieve the data whenever they need it. There are several reasons that make the management and security of data storage challenging. Data growth is rampant since it grows at an average rate of 45 percent annually (Wise, 2008). The growth is due to having unstructured data and the approach of keeping everything. Another challenge is the velocity in which data changes from one form to another.

At present, the data in use comes from different types of content. Many businesses have new applications that create data from new sources. All the new sources have distinct requirements for accessing, protecting, securing, and retaining the data. Many organizations do not understand the type of data to keep or not. They also have limited information regarding where the sensitive data should reside, and the people having the authorization to access it. The limited knowledge of data management procedures makes it challenging for the IT professionals to manage the organizational data. Another major reason that hinders effective data management is strained budgets allocation to the IT departments. There is much for the IT to do, but the budgets stay flat or decline over time. Thus, it is important for IT to find better ways of gaining visibility into the organizational data.

Conclusion

Data management is an important aspect of database security. A database has various forms of data whose security depends on the data management practices in place. All the efforts in data security have a goal of ensuring that the data is confidential, available and has a high level of integrity. The failure of having an efficient database security measures renders the data and information stored in the database liable for compromise and breaches. Thus, data management procedures ensure that the data is secure and also available for use as required by the user. In essence, a failed data management system is detrimental to the operations of an organization. There are many reasons for ensuring data management that involves the protection against a breach. However, challenges also exist in the efforts of ensuring efficiency data management.

References

Data security management (2015)

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Laudon Kc & Laudon Jp.(2002) Management Information Systems: Managing the digital firm. 7thed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Lyndsay Wise (2008) Understanding the importance of Data Management: A decision maker’s user guide from Dashboard Insight, 2015.

Margaret Rouse (2010) Data Management,

Pinfield, S., Cox, A. M., & Smith, J. (2014). Research Data Management and Libraries: Relationships, Activities, Drivers and Influences. Plos ONE, 9(12), 1-28. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0114734

Rob P & Coronel Cm. (2000). Database Systems: design, implementation, and management. 4thed. Cambridge: Course.

Tianjing, L., Vedula, S. S., Hadar, N., Parkin, C., Lau, J., & Dickersin, K. (2015). Innovations in Data Collection, Management, and Archiving for Systematic Reviews: Annals Of Internal Medicine, 162(4), 287-294. doi:10.7326/M14-1603

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