On-prem Databases are Vulnerable to Attack

Data has come to be one of our maximum essential assets. Every day, hackers unleash attacks designed to steal private data, and an organization’s database servers are frequently the primary targets of those attacks. So knowing how to secure those is of vital importance.

According to Risk Based Security’s 2020 Q3 report, around 36 billion records were compromised between January and September 2020. While this result is quite staggering, it also sends a clear message of the need for effective database security measures.

A five-year longitudinal study comprising almost 27,000 scanned databases found that the average database consists of 26 existing vulnerabilities.

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) give the guidelines that 56% of the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) found were ranked as ‘High’ or ‘Critical’ severity. This shows that many companies aren’t prioritizing the security in their data and neglecting routine patching exercises.

“Given that almost one out of on-prem databases is vulnerable, it’s far very possible that the number of reported data breaches will retain to develop, and the importance of those breaches will develop too.”

Significant disparities among nations

The regional analysis uncovers great disparities among nations, with countries which include France (84%), Australia (65%), and Singapore (64%) having much higher incidences of insecure databases.

However, for countries that include Germany and Mexico, even as the number of insecure databases is relatively low, the ones which might be vulnerable are well above the average in terms of the number of vulnerabilities able to exploit.

A tremendous landscape of opportunity for attackers

The remarkable number of database vulnerabilities gives attackers a tremendous landscape of opportunity. This year found that the number of data breaches is growing by 30% yearly even as the number of data compromised will increase by an average of 224%.

For non-publicly available databases, attackers can use a number of tools such as SQL injections (SQLi) to make the most vulnerabilities in web applications that can be related to a database. This stays a constant business threat as almost 50% of breaches in the past several years originate at the application layer.

Vulnerabilities in on-premises databases fueling data leakage incidents

Given the staggering number of vulnerabilities that exist in on-premises databases, it should come as no surprise that the number of data leakage incidents has increased 15% over a 12-month average. An analysis of data breaches since 2017 shows that 74% of the data stolen in a breach is personal data, while login credentials (15%) and credit card details (10%) are also lucrative targets.

The explosive growth in data breaches is evidence that organizations are not investing enough time or resources to truly secure their data. The answer is to build a security strategy that puts the protection of data at the center of everything. Database security is an essential investment and will give you the confidence that your data is safe, secure, and reliable.