Oracle today introduced two new pieces of software to secure data and
applications and help customers better meet compliance requirements.
Thanks to “realms and rules,” Oracle Database Vault keeps database
administrators (DBAs) and other corporate insiders with technical know-how
from accessing certain types of privileged information.
The Redwood Shores, Calif., company’s Secure Backup encrypts data to tape to
safeguard against the misuse of sensitive data in the event backup tapes are
lost or stolen, a common occurrence in 2005.
Bank of America, Time Warner and CitiFinancial all lost tapes laced with corporate data last year.
The products come at a time when more security threats are coming from
so-called corporate insiders, such as disgruntled former employees.
Companies are increasingly sensitive to such threats because of regulatory
and privacy regulations, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), both of which call for
data to be saved unaltered.
Database Vault, a standalone security option that is expected to be
available on Linux within the next 30 days and on other platforms in 2007,
enables customers to implement incremental restrictions on data access for
users.
Specifically, Oracle said in a statement that realms are established to
encapsulate an existing application or a set of database objects inside a
protection zone while rules restrict operations based upon business-specific operational requirements.
For example, Oracle said a company can prevent an administrator from making
changes to the database while outside of the corporate intranet and after
normal working hours.
Oracle Secure Backup meanwhile backs up data on Oracle databases and file
systems on Linux, Unix and Windows platforms with supports for over 200 tape
devices on the market.
Oracle said in a statement that Secure Backup embeds back-up logic inside a
relational database engine, enabling greater levels of security and
performance at the source.
While back-up products from leading providers such as Symantec and EMC
encrypt data after it leaves the database, Secure Backup encrypts the data
in the database, locking up data in transit and on tape.
This ensures that lost or pilfered backup tapes cannot be read or altered
with by a third party, an important function at a time when tapes seem to
keep falling off trucks or are stolen by potential perpetrators.
Secure Backup also has certificate-based authentication for all hosts’
systems participating in a backup or restore to ensure that outside parties
cannot impersonate an authorized host.
Oracle Secure Backup is generally available today for $3,000 per physical
tape drive.
In related Oracle news, the company this week committed to enhance J.D.
Edwards, Oracle, PeopleSoft and Siebel applications on an on-going basis to
ally fears that the company will phase out its acquired application lines.
