For this Friday poll, Steve Jones asks about your auditing requirements.  Read more...

Deanna Dicken examines a SQL Server Profiler event to determine object access...who is using the object, when, and how. This gives the SQL developer or database administrator much needed information for impact analysis prior to a change or the decommissioning of a SQL Server object.  Read more...

This article is the beginner's guide to Default Trace. The article outlines how to query the default trace for key trace events, with a focus on DDL history.  Read more...

I have been tasked with auditing security on my SQL Server. However, this needs to be a somewhat automated process as I don't want to have to rely on taking screenshots every month to satisfy our auditors. What tables and/or views should I be using and what's the best way to extract the information out of them?  Read more...

This article from Tushar Kanti will help you identify the list of all the Jobs related to a Table/View/Procedure.  Read more...

A bug reported on Connect has Steve Jones worried. This one could be a big deal in some situations that are concerned about comprehensive auditing.  Read more...

This article examines the various methods for retrieving data from an Audit table.   Read more...

Learn how to use the SQL Server 2008 catalog view and dynamic management view to access the audit details of existing server and database level audits.  Read more...

Auditing your SQL Server instances has become more of a concern these days. SQL Server 2008 introduced a new feature named SQL Server Audit. Enabling this feature can be done in just a few simple steps, but so could disabling this feature. And when it comes to audits, many times you are asked to provide proof that the audit itself has not been tampered with.  Read more...

We are inundated with new technologies and products designed to help make our organisations safe from hackers and other malcontents. One technology that has gained ground over the past few years is database activity monitoring. It makes sense to protect valuable databases, and by adding an intelligent monitor capable of sniffing out threats an additional level of protection can be gained. But what is database activity monitoring and why should you care?   Read more...

MAK shows us how easy it is to create a database level audit, test the audit and retrieve the audit records in Microsoft SQL Server 2008.  Read more...

Auditing is not only used to ensure internal compliance with authorization rules, it is increasingly used to comply with new legal compliance requirements. This article provides a detailed walkthrough for using SQL Server 2008's new inbuilt Audit feature.  Read more...

If your company needs to go through a SOX (Sarbanes–Oxley) audit or any security audit, the DBA has to provide security information to them. If you have purchased third party tools to provide this information that is great. If you don't have third party tools and need to go through many servers to provide this information it can be a hassle and very time consuming. So I put together a script to generate a report that I could just review. The script generates a report of all elevated level accounts and any possible security holes.  Read more...

I would like the option on some servers of having a profiler trace running 24x7 in the background. I could then access and read these trace files to investigate issues after the fact - much like the default trace that came out with SQL 2005.   Read more...

The final part of the Security Audit series examines how to secure the Windows Server operating system.  Read more...

What do you do as a DBA if you get asked to cook the books? With the economy doing poorly, some executives will be tempted to mis-report earnings and they might ask the technical people to help. Steve Jones has a few thoughts.  Read more...

What do you do as a DBA if you get asked to cook the books? With the economy doing poorly, some executives will be tempted to mis-report earnings and they might ask the technical people to help. Steve Jones has a few thoughts.  Read more...

What do you do as a DBA if you get asked to cook the books? With the economy doing poorly, some executives will be tempted to mis-report earnings and they might ask the technical people to help. Steve Jones has a few thoughts.  Read more...

The second in the Security Audit series looks at securing an individual database.  Read more...

The first of this three part series on SQL Server Security Auditing focuses on the SQL Server itself and addressing any of its security vulnerabilities.  Read more...