Database Management Systems - Security and Integrity

Flashcards covering key concepts related to database security, access control, encryption, and integrity constraints.

Secrecy (in DB security)

Protecting data against unauthorized users; ensuring users cannot see things they are not supposed to.

Integrity (in DB security)

Protecting data against unauthorized modifications, even by authorized users.

Integrity Constraints

Ensure that changes made to the database by authorized users do not result in loss of data consistency.

Authentication

The process of verifying the identity of a user (Who are you? Prove it!).

Authorization

Determining what actions a user is allowed to perform within the database.

Database System Security Level

Enforces authorization rules, controlling which users can modify or query data.

Operating System Security Level

Protects against unauthorized access at the OS level, regardless of database security.

Network Security Level

Secures remote database access through hardware and software measures.

Physical Security Level

Physically securing sites with computer systems against intruders or terrorists.

Human Security Level

Careful authorization of users to prevent intruders from gaining access.

Privileges (in database security)

Permissions granted to users to perform specific actions on the database, either system-wide or on specific objects.

Roles (in database security)

Collections of system privileges that can be granted to users, simplifying privilege management.

Grant (in database security)

Giving privileges or roles to users.

Revoke (in database security)

Removing privileges or roles from users.

Security Policy

Specifies who is authorized to do what within the database system.

Security Mechanism

Allows us to enforce a chosen security policy.

Discretionary Access Control (DAC)

A security mechanism where users can grant access to their own objects to other users.

Mandatory Access Control (MAC)

A security mechanism based on system-wide policies that cannot be changed by individual users.

Audit Trail

A special file or database that automatically tracks all operations performed by users on regular data.

Encryption

Masks data for secure transmission or storage.

Symmetric Encryption

Encryption where the encryption key is the same as the decryption key.

Public-Key Encryption

Encryption where each user has a public encryption key and a private decryption key.

Data Encryption Standard (DES)

A symmetric-key algorithm for encrypting digital data.

RSA

A public-key cryptosystem that is widely used for secure data transmission.

Data Integrity

Ensuring that data adheres to a predefined set of rules, maintaining the validity of data.

Integrity Subsystem

A component of the DBMS that monitors transactions and detects integrity violations.

NULL Integrity

A rule defined on a single column that allows or disallows null values in that column.

UNIQUE Column Values

A constraint that allows the insert or update of a row only if it contains a unique value in that column.

Referential Integrity

A rule defined on a key in one table that guarantees that the values in that key match the values in a key in a related table.

PRIMARY KEY Constraint

Uniquely identifies rows of data stored in a table and does not allow nulls.