Top Features to Look for in Database Activity Monitoring (DAM) Tools

There are numerous database monitoring tools available today in the market, so choosing the right tool can be really time-consuming. Many traditional tools and methodologies of analyzing database performance don’t work, and many IT professionals waste time and money looking at the wrong metrics/statistics.

This article describes the features that industrial experts agree that an efficient and effective database monitoring tool should provide.

Databases Activity Monitoring (DAM) tools play a pivotal role in any organization that needs to provide an additional layer of security and protection in opposition to malicious attacks. Furthermore, the database activity monitoring tools are highly crucial to meet legal compliance needs that administrative industries like health and finances need. However, many database administrators are still using traditional or legacy database monitoring tools that can prove to be inefficient and expensive. While some of these monitoring software’s may come for free, however, they can carry a hidden outlay that can interpret or lead to millions of dollars exhausted later on.

How Can Database Monitoring Tools Guard You?

Automated solutions offer enhanced protection, minimize costs, lead to better security audits, and empower you with an end-to-end reporting. In a scenario that an attacker breaches your database, whether it’s via data exploitation, SQL injection, or DDoS, real-time responses and alerts are essential.

The other chief features database monitoring tools persist are precedence optimization and dynamic policy formation, not to mention a simple to use interface that leads the administrator, or activity handler, to analyze contemporary vulnerabilities or potential threats.

The Useful Monitoring Tools Realize 3 Tasks for Database Monitoring Activities:

• They collect data and information in regards to traffic interacting with your databases

• Correlate that actions with legitimate vs. illegitimate user-base

• And offer quick and prioritized responses to all types of threats

Traffic Collection

Many monitoring tools have started auditing users that are either straightforwardly accessing the database that uses the database via a web application, mobile device or a browser. To all intents and purposes, this approach allows companies to keep up with the protection and compliance policies in regards to their databases and regardless of the total amount of traffic.

An ideal solution must accomplish that by fitting in the needed details of every transaction, analyzing actions and activities within the database. The real-time monitoring enables the companies to be in full control of all traffic in order to correctly address vulnerabilities and measure risks.

Activity Correlation

In addition to database performance monitoring, activity correlation is a highly developed feature among DAMs that detects a probable threat by monitoring transactions from specific users. If a user has a curiously high amount of transactions or if an unswerving user has begun corrupting with a database outside of their assigned domains then an alert with a notification is automatically generated.

All activity within a database is characteristically logged to a repository, a familiar feature in a DAM solution. However, activity correlation goes further than this criterion feature. It automatically archives required activities, the policies, and the configurations for creating a model for normal database operations on the user basis. This correlation is imperative to establishing what each user pattern activity looks likes so irregularities can be identified and met head-on.

Alert Communication

One of the most significant aspects of DAM tools is sustenance in prioritizing incidents and enabling active alerting. Alerts can be communicated in an assortment of ways, whether through a quick email, through an alert panel on the tool, or via a 3rd party security systems like SIEM. Incidents that are lower in the risks should be recognized as such, but others like a user trying to way in insightful information or traffic must be attended first and dealt as per the defined levels of severity.

The most wide-ranging form of alerts is policy-based alerts. There are two groups that policy-based alerts fall into. The user activity group alerts are completely user-specific such as strange information requests or way in, interfering with some sensitive data and the SQL injections. These alerts are fundamental to inform the DAM tool that there is a possibility of threat or malicious action has been observed.

Key Takeaways

Choosing the right Databases Activity Monitoring (DAM) tool is very crucial for all businesses as they contribute to the overall security to your company and to the clients you serve.

Whatever tool you select, make sure that it guards your organization against SQL injections, excessive privileges, privilege abuse, and anomalous user activities. For the best run through, setting up responsive policies and alerts should be a peak priority. All said, this means your DAM must attend to the three features or procedures that consist of traffic collection, activity correlation, and alert communication.