Security is one of the most important focuses in IT today. As more data is stored by organisations, it is becoming more important to protect that data, as companies can face penalties and fines for breaches, as well as being subject to ransomware threats or data tampering. There are many facets to security and ensuring best practice security procedures are in place can be challenging. WARDY IT Solutions offers a comprehensive SQL Server Security Audit for your on premises and/or cloud hosted database platforms.
The SQL Server Security Audit is a complete review of your database platform to identify potential gaps that may put the system at risk. A workshop is the first part of the engagement to better understand the type and location of sensitive data and understand the main goals and concerns surrounding security.
The following areas with recommendations are performed as a part of the Security Audit:
- Platform specifications and supportability – Platforms that are no longer supported or are not up-to-date with security patches are at risk of being compromised.
- Service accounts and best practices – Service accounts can be used to provide back door to accessing the database platform if they are not secured correctly.
- Access to sensitive data (provided data can be identified) – Because data can be accessed through various levels of permissions, it is important to understand who has access, reduce that access to the minimum required and potentially introduce controls to mitigate visibility of that data.
- Auditing access to sensitive data – Logging all requests to read or modify sensitive data can provide insight as to who and what sensitive data is accessed. In the event of a compromise, audit logs can provide some important answers as to how the breach occurred.
- Encryption at rest and in flight – Encryption at rest should be implemented to protect the data physically stored on disk. Without encryption at rest, data may be accessed if the data, or copies of the data can be accessed and mounted to another computer system. Encryption in flight protects the data against being compromised at the network level. If data is not encrypted over the network, packet sniffing can be used to access sensitive data if transmitted, as it is contained in the network payload in clear text. Encrypting traffic prevents compromising the data by encrypting the network payload.
Each check is assessed, and the risk level and priority measured against a risk assessment matrix.
The Work Plan
At the completion of the SQL Server Security Audit you will be presented with a comprehensive report documenting the details of the systems assessed as well as its position on the risk matrix, with recommendations of how to remediate. Once this report has been presented, we schedule a time to discuss with you each of the findings and help you to prioritise the actions required to ensure the security of your SQL Database platform.
