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Database Security Top Proposal

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Introduction

Statistical database security will be the focus of the research proposal. Because statistical data is used to answer statistical questions about an organization's performance, it should be kept private for any given organization. Private information could fall into the hands of those wishing to harm the organization's employees or customers in the event of a data breach. To protect the confidentiality of sensitive transactional data, statistical databases must be safeguarded. “Database Security Technical Implementation Guide, states that database security should provide “controlled, protected access to the contents of your database and, in the process, preserves the integrity, consistency, and overall quality of your data” (p. 9). The goal is simple, the path to achieving the goal, a bit more complex.

Research Statement

The primary goal of statistical database protection is to ensure data privacy while minimizing data loss. The most pressing concerns for data owners are access to reliable and unlimited data and ensuring that publicly disseminated information is kept private. ‘database security encompasses three constructs: confidentiality or protection of data from unauthorized disclosure, integrity or prevention from unauthorized data access, and availability or the identification of and recovery from hardware and software errors or malicious activity resulting in the denial of data availability.’ Because these two actions are mutually exclusive, high-quality data must be protected from both disclosure and identification.

Event Analysis

To keep statistical databases safe from intrusion, two methods are used. Restriction means that the organization will only present statistical data that has been deemed safe, whereas noise addition means that data will be available as estimates rather than exact figures. These two methods are critical for determining whether or not data has been lost or stolen.When a snooper is determined to obtain classified information about a specific element, threats to statistical data arise. In a situation like this, private information will likely be made public. When snoopers derive filtered estimations of interest and exact assessments of private values from the responses, one or more statistical inquiries can lead to exposure.

Top Statistical Databases Threats

Most statistical databases can be easily abused and manipulated by an overly powerful employee. This is more likely to occur when employees' supervisors or managers grant them database privileges that go above and beyond what their job descriptions require. “Today's information security battleground is all about entitlements – who’s got them, whether they were granted properly, and how to enforce them” (p.117). Being able to assess access control techniques is critical to student understanding of database security. Bank employees can easily increase or decrease customers' account balances and changes their account information. It's not uncommon for businesses to fail to update employees' access privileges when they change departments or even leave (Murray, 2016). Malicious employees have also taken over statistical databases and used them for their gain. These employees commit illegal acts by abusing the privileges bestowed upon them by their positions of authority within the database.

Strategies to Protect Statistical Databases

Murray, M. C. (2016). Database security: What students need to know. Journal of information technology education: Innovations in practice, 9, IIP-61. https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/facpubs/1389/