The hack on a Gizmodo writer using Amazon and Apple customer service security holes was shocking. Steve Jones notes that while security is important, backups are even more important.  Read more...

Security is a complex process, one that is becoming more and more important to DBAs all the time. This week Steve Jones wants to know how security is handled for your service accounts.   Read more...

I've been charged with coming up with a quick solution to audit login changes on my SQL Servers. However, there's no budget so I'm going to have to come up with basic scripts and the like to do the work. Is this tip we cover a solution for you to audit login changes.  Read more...

Make backup several databases with a cursor  Read more...

Recently I was supporting a third party application. It queries to determine what tables it has permissions to before it proceeds with the rest of its functionality. We had implemented permissions based on the best practice of creating roles, assigning the permissions to the roles, and then making the users members of the roles. The application was querying INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_PRIVILEGES and of course didn't find any permissions directly against the user in question. We ended up granting explicit permissions to the user so the application would work, but I'm more interested in the general case. How can I determine permissions for an individual user?  Read more...

Enhanced sp_help_revlogin  Read more...

I was called over today by a person doing application support to help troubleshoot a database connectivity issue. This isn't a...  Read more...

Great DBAs collect all kinds of metrics on their instances and let them manage themselves. However many administrators need help monitoring and interpreting the data. Today Steve Jones asks if you think this data needs extra security or is it less of an issue than other PII data.  Read more...

Today Steve Jones notes that security is improving at many web sites. It's not great, but it's improving. That's a good sign, or is it?   Read more...

Better security can be achieved by writing better code. Steve Jones agrees, but doesn't think it's as easy as it sounds.  Read more...

This article will show you how to use user-defined triggers to supplement your security policies, preventing unauthorised data manipulation and blocking unfriendly logins.  Read more...

Today Steve Jones talks security and the need for us to share information about issues, especially those that impact security.  Read more...

Passwords control most of our access to computer systems and provide some level of authentication, but their security depends heavily on their strength and privacy. Steve Jones says you can set a good example for others and hemp improve security on all systems.  Read more...

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With all the recent worms and attacks out there, it's only a matter of time before someone focuses more on databases. With that in mind, Steve Jones thinks it's important we learn and use encryption and better security now.  Read more...

In a blog post F-Secure's Chief Research Officer, Mikko Hypponen (blog | twitter), indicated that with the US participating in cyberattacks...  Read more...

This paper introduces the security model for tabular BI semantic models in SQL Server 2012. You will learn how to create roles, implement dynamic security, configure impersonation settings, manage roles, and choose a method for connecting to models that works in your network security context.  Read more...

Siri is seen as a data security hole at IBM. This is something that Steve Jones thinks we might need to be more concerned about in the future, especially as more and more processing takes places outside of our walls.  Read more...

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This article describes how to create user defined server roles and use stored procedures and queries related.  Read more...