Guradium reigns in database administrator privileges

By Greg McNevin

May 28, 2008: Database security specialist Guardium has unveiled the world’s first solution to block privileged users from accessing sensitive data across all major database management system (DBMS) platforms.

The company says the solution is the first of its kind, as it is a cross-DBMS that prevents administrators, application developers and outsourced personnel from viewing sensitive data in corporate databases.

Dubbed S-GATE, Guardium says the system is the only technology that enables organisations to safeguard enterprise data and meet compliance requirements – such as Sarbanes-Oxley, PCI-DSS and data privacy laws – without the cost and complexity of modifying databases, application code or existing business processes.

It adds that the system also enables companies to not purely rely on “after-the-fact” mechanisms such as logging and alerting, and secures data without the risk of blocking legitimate business access.

Everyday administrative tasks such as backups, patches and tuning can be completed without interruption, however, security functions such as creating new database accounts and elevating privileges cannot be blocked at will to provide more granular separation of duties between admins.

“Our customers have been asking for this capability because it is the ultimate in database security and separation of duties, and it’s essential for compliance,” said Ron Bennatan, Ph.D., Guardium CTO.

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