Time-series database – The Cloud Computing Journey

Auditing and monitoring

Enable auditing to track user activity and changes to the database. Regularly review audit logs to identify suspicious activities. Implement real-time monitoring to detect unusual patterns or unauthorized access attempts. For instance, financial institutions monitor transactions to identify fraudulent activities. Auditing and monitoring are essential components of database security that involve tracking and recording database activities, user actions, and changes to the database. These practices help detect unauthorized access, ensure data integrity, and facilitate compliance with regulatory requirements.

Auditing

Auditing involves recording database activities and user actions to create an audit trail. This trail can be used to track who accessed the database, what actions they performed, and when these actions occurred. Auditing is crucial to identifying security breaches and investigating suspicious activities.

Monitoring

Monitoring involves real-time tracking of database activities and events. It allows for immediate detection of abnormal behaviors or security incidents. Monitoring can include activities such as user logins, data modifications, and failed access attempts.

The benefits of auditing and monitoring are as follows:

• Security incident detection: Auditing and monitoring help identify security breaches and unauthorized access attempts promptly
• Regulatory compliance: Many regulations require organizations to maintain audit logs and demonstrate control over their data
• Accountability: Auditing and monitoring hold users accountable for their actions within the database
• Data integrity: Monitoring helps ensure that data remains consistent and accurate, detecting unauthorized changes
• Forensics and investigation: Audit trails aid in forensic investigations to understand the sequence of events during a security incident

Popular tools and methods for auditing and monitoring

In the dynamic landscape of cybersecurity, robust auditing and monitoring are integral components for maintaining the integrity and security of databases. We need to shed some light on the diverse strategies and tools designed to fortify this critical aspect. Most modern DBMSs come equipped with built-in auditing features, allowing for comprehensive monitoring at various levels. Oracle Database Auditing, a key player, enables the tracking and recording of database activities and user actions. DAM solutions such as Imperva and IBM Guardium provide real-time monitoring, identifying potential threats. Security information and event management (SIEM) systems, including Splunk and Elastic Stack, contribute to intelligent log analysis. The section also sheds light on custom scripts and triggers, illustrating how organizations can tailor monitoring to capture specific events. Cloud providers offer dedicated tools such as Amazon CloudWatch and Google Cloud Operations Suite for monitoring resources, emphasizing a multi-faceted approach.

Let’s look at some of the solutions around this aspect:

1. DBMS audit features:
   • Most modern DBMSs offer built-in auditing features that allow you to enable auditing at various levels (e.g., database, schema, table)
   • Oracle Database Auditing: Allows tracking and recording of database activities and user actions
2. DAM solutions:
   • Imperva DAM: Monitors and audits database activities to identify threats and vulnerabilities
   • IBM Guardium: Offers real-time monitoring and alerts for database events
3. SIEM systems:
   • Splunk: Collects and analyzes log data to identify patterns and detect security incidents
   • Elastic Stack (formerly ELK Stack): Combines Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana for log analysis
4. Custom scripts and triggers:
   • Organizations might develop custom scripts or triggers to capture specific events and log them
5. Cloud provider monitoring tools:
   • Amazon CloudWatch: Provides monitoring and alerting for AWS resources, including databases
   • Google Cloud Operations Suite: Offers monitoring, logging, and alerting for GCP resources
6. User and privilege monitoring:
   • Some tools focus on monitoring user activities, privilege escalation, and access patterns
   Follow these steps to implement auditing and monitoring:
7. Enable auditing: Configure the DBMS to enable auditing on relevant database objects and actions.
8. Configure alerts: Set up alerts and notifications for specific events or patterns that could indicate security incidents.
9. Regular review: Regularly review audit logs and monitor data to detect anomalies and potential threats.
10. Automated responses: Consider setting up automated responses to certain events, such as blocking an IP address after multiple failed login attempts.
    By implementing comprehensive auditing and monitoring practices, organizations can proactively detect and respond to security threats, ensuring the integrity and security of their databases within cloud environments. Please note that this section about auditing and monitoring is brief and we will be discussing these topics in detail in the chapters that follow.