Organizations need to protect their data from potential attackers. Any business, large or small, could be a target (in fact, in some cases a smaller business could be a more desirable target because attackers assume the business will have fewer resources to guard its data, making an attack more likely to pay off). A breach can also involve a lot more than just an expensive ransom; it can damage your company’s reputation, create website downtime or traffic jams, or cause compliance violations.

With all that in mind, database security solutions are an essential part of securing your environment. Protecting your data is imperative to ensuring that your business succeeds in an increasingly challenging online environment. New vulnerabilities, exploits, and malware are discovered at a growing rate, and it can be tough to keep up on your own.

Database Security is a Problem

Data breaches are an occupational hazard for any company with an online presence. So far in 2023, large companies like T-Mobile and Activision have reported breaches, but smaller companies are also at risk. According to some reports, 43% of cyberattacks happen to small businesses. Whether a company is large or small, however, the costs of a data breach can be devastating to productivity and profitability.

Despite the high likelihood that your company will be attacked at some point, keeping your data secure isn’t a lost cause. The exact number varies, but most surveys indicate that between 84% and 88% of all data, breaches happened because of human error or non-malicious security slip-ups from company insiders. The most common form of attack was phishing emails that employees interacted with, and 74% of organizations reported that human error had a role in the security incident. 

Best Practices for Database Security

Despite the expense of good database security, it’s much cheaper to prevent an incident than to respond to one. With that in mind, here are some things you can do to reduce your risk.

• Limit and manage access. With so many incidents occurring because of human error, it’s a good idea to tighten security around access and permissions. Employees should only be able to access data necessary for doing their jobs, and they should be required to use multi-factor authentication to log in to company websites or portals. 
• Update your systems regularly. New vulnerabilities pop up every day, so it’s important to stay on top of patches, especially if there’s a high-risk weak point in your environment. Run the latest versions of all software, and make sure your hardware is still compatible with the most recent changes.
• Back up your data. Ransomware can take your data hostage, but it can’t force you to pay a ransom if you have another copy of your data somewhere else. Set up redundant backups so that there is at least one copy in a second physical location (or in the cloud) to avoid environmental damage and at least one copy on a local device that is isolated from your network. Having an offline device protects that copy of your data from online attacks.
• Use firewalls and database monitoring. A web application firewall (WAF) can help prevent malicious traffic from infiltrating your network. It monitors user access, detects suspicious activity, and reduces the likelihood that an attacker will be able to access your data from your web applications.
• Isolate your database. It’s always a good idea to increase the number of access hurdles an attacker would have to jump through to get to your data. One way to do this is to keep your data on a server that is separate from the server that hosts your website. By isolating the database on a separate server, you make it much more challenging for someone to use your website as an attack vector for your data.
• Beware of insider threats. Although most security breaches arise from human error, some are deliberate. Disgruntled employees, for example, often have both security access and motive, and they may deliberately allow an attacker to infiltrate your database. In some cases, they may compromise it themselves. To prevent this, install video cameras and other physical security measures around servers, and create a zero-trust security environment. 

Managing the Database Security Threat

Your business is at risk of attack from a variety of threats, including ransomware, phishing attacks, DDoS attacks, SQL attacks, and compromised credentials, among many others. By implementing database security solutions for both your physical data storage and your network, you can reduce your risk of a security breach. Protecting your database is essential for your business’s continued success, particularly as online threats are more numerous and more difficult to avoid than ever before. 

However, by limiting and monitoring access in both the physical space and the online environment, you can reduce your risk of a serious breach that could have a significant negative impact on your business. Keeping up with backups can keep ransomware at bay, and effective firewall use and frequent system updates or patches can reduce the likelihood that an attacker will be able to enter your environment at all. 

Ultimately, database security solutions can take up a lot of your annual budget, but it is far more cost-effective to establish preventative measures than to recover from the expense and downtime of a data breach. Better to manage threats than to have to implement your disaster recovery plan.