Oracle Database 11g R2 Encryption and Advanced Data Security

Threats to data security abound and are increasing in sophistication and frequency. Organizations have both an ethical and oftentimes a legal responsibility to understand the countermeasures available, to compare these against those threats to which they are exposed, and to properly apply such countermeasures. This Oracle 11g training course module considers how encryption technology should, and should not, be employed within an Oracle database environment in response to known threats and risks. It will also discuss other best security practices which pertain to application security, host system configuration and the database installation. Within this training course guidebook we will discuss these topics:

- Consider examples of common security threats and sensitive data which might exist within an organization; Review the essentials of a sound and secure database installation;

- Consider known database security weaknesses and how these may be addressed;

- Consider examples of specific attacks which could be launched against individual components within a data center or within the public networks;

- Review the theory and concepts which underlie symmetric and asymmetric encryption;

- Consider the primary elements involved in asymmetric encryption, including private and public keys, the Public Key Infrastructure, certificates, Certificate Authorities and wallets;

- Discuss how symmetric or asymmetric encryption is applied to network traffic, database storage and external files; Consider the limits of encryption strategies and when encryption could be misapplied and counterproductive;

- Discuss the challenges and options available for encryption key storage;

- Apply Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) to tablespace, column, export file, RMAN backup set file and SecureFile LOB encryption;

- Use the Oracle Data Pump access driver to encrypt external tables;

- Configure Oracle Net Services to repel database attacks and implement advanced security using encrypted network communication;

- Implement an application-based encryption solution using the DBMS_CRYPTO() package;

- Review the types of attacks which can be launched using SQL injection, and which countermeasures should be applied to repel these;

- Implement enhanced application security using the Virtual Private Database (VPD) facility.