What Is Database Activity Monitoring (DAM)? Benefits, Features, Techniques And Software

All organizations have one major life source in common: data, and it’s constantly under siege with cyberattacks by malicious actors. A successful instance of such attacks leads to data breaches, which typically spell doom for businesses.

Eventually, the consequences of data breaches, such as identity theft, online scams, financial implications, and reputational damage, pushed organisations to data protection. As a key component in protecting data from external threats, organizations emphasize data security.

Data security is a very complex procedure, and owing to the large database most entities possess, the risk of a data breach is almost 100%. Common threats to databases are:

SQL Injection: The use of malicious SQL codes to manipulate databases for information access. These are one of the most common web hacking techniques.
Malware Attacks: These use software embedded in the database to disable it or steal information.
Denial of Service attacks involve flooding a database with queries to stunt or shutdown its performance.

In this article, you’ll find information on Database Activity Monitoring, its architectures, features, examples, and a DAM solution checklist.

What is Database Activity Monitoring?

Any solution used to monitor and analyze database activity in real-time. It is a compilation of tools that help identify and report illegal and negative activities with minimal impact on user operations. The process of monitoring database activity has gone past analyzing user activity in and around related database management systems.

Nowadays, DAM works by combining several methods like memory scraping, network sniffing, database audit logs, and reading system tables to paint an accurate picture of the database activities.

Why Do Organisations Need DAM?

Most databases have one problem, It’s the lack of records. Should a cybercriminal wiggle his/her way into the database, they have enough access to carry out their crimes and wipe out all traces undetected. Considering that data breach discovery already takes too much time, the case above further lengthens the time frame.

So, organizations, especially the large ones, need a system that actively monitors each and every activity on databases in detail.

Benefits of Database Activity Monitoring

Keeps a log of database activities; every activity is recorded, including the identity of the person.
Ensures compliance: This is an aspect overlooked by many organizations. DAM is important, since 137 out of 194 countries have laws and regulations to guard the data of their citizens. DAM helps organizations comply with laws like NDPR, CCPA, and the revered GDPR. These regulations carry serious penalties, such as fines and sanctions for non-compliance.
Implements division of labor amongst data administrators
Generates alerts for data breaches: a lot of times, data breaches occur at the hands of unauthorized entities. DAM alerts the administration of instances of unauthorized access in real time.

Key Features of Database Activity Monitoring

There are certain features that define DAM. Some of them are as follows:

Enhanced data privacy: proactively identifying vulnerable data
Automatic identification and classification of different types of databases, such as RDBMS, NoSQL, in-memory, distributed, and big data systems.
Safe storage and auditing of database activities and logs in a location separate from the monitored database.
Better insight into application traffic and greater accountability for end users.
Facilitation of informed decision-making through advanced analytics and reporting.
Cross-Platform Compatibility: Supports on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments.

Common Challenges In Database Activity Monitoring

Although DAM has been established as an essential part of data security, there are a few hurdles that make its implementation difficult.

Encrypted Data: many data are encrypted to prevent unauthorized access. While it’s a welcome data security practice, it can mask both legitimate and suspicious activity.
Large Volume of Data: some organizations hold large volumes of data. This may strain database activity monitoring systems.
System Performance Impact: use of profilers, logging, and agents can slow down the performance of the database system.

Database Activity Monitoring Tools and Techniques

Database Profilers: These tools help to understand the database workload by tracking performance metrics such as;

CPU Usage
Memory usage
User sessions
Resource pools
Connection statistics

Query performance
Buffer Cache details
System and user errors

Automated Monitoring Solutions: Examples, Datadog and Nagios, are perfect for continuous oversight of databases. They watch over performance metrics non-stop and give red alerts for suspicious activities.

Common Database Activity Monitoring Architectures

There are 3 main architectures to implement DAM, which are interception-based, memory-based, and log-based.

Interception-Based

Most DAM systems in the present day monitor databases by intercepting the communication between database server and client. This interference can happen at several points, like,

Database memory level
Network level
Operating system level
Database library level

This type of architecture can prove too slow to catch unauthorized queries.

Memory-Based

Some DAM systems use a small, simple tool that links to secure databases. This tool constantly checks a part of the system where data is stored (SSystem Global Area-SGA) to collect and monitor SQL commands as they run. This approach provides comprehensive coverage of all database transactions. It can also be used to secure databases regardless of their locations (cloud or any IT infrastructure).

Log-Based

Some Database Activity Monitoring (DAM) systems can retrieve valuable information by inspecting the logs that record changes to the database. These logs keep track of all the changes and can provide useful details about the transactions that have occurred. By analyzing these redo logs, they can gather a lot of important data.

A downside of this architecture is that not all the data needed for DAM is stored in redo logs. Therefore, the system will need augmentation from native audit trail information.

Database Activity Monitoring Tool Checklist

This is a checklist organizations can use to select a DAM tool most suitable with minimal effects on their databases.

Should provide real-time ongoing monitoring of all SQL traffic, including network-based SQL traffic.
Should be able to start a TCP when blocking a session to ensure the database remains unchanged.
Should be able to send alerts over multiple channels.
Should use minimal network bandwidth when checking incoming SQL statements to the gateway.
Should not take up more than 3% of CPU and disk resources.

Top Database Activity Monitoring Tools

DAM vs. SIEM

Though DAM and SIEM share similarities in architecture and compliance features, they are different. How?

DAM: focuses on in-depth, real-time monitoring of database transactions.
SIEM analyses organisation-wide events and patterns with a broader but less detailed view.

Conclusion

When it comes to data protection and security, Database Activity Monitoring (DAM) is the key amidst growing cyber threats. By giving real-time insights into database activities, DAM helps prevent breaches, ensures regulatory compliance, and enhances overall data security. Despite challenges like encrypted data and system performance impacts, DAM remains a vital tool for organizations seeking to protect their valuable information and maintain trust in an increasingly digital world.

Tagged Database Monitor, Johan Consults