Essay Sample: Develop a Security Checklist for An SQL Server

According to Carter (2019), SQL Server provides a broad and deep set of security features that allow you to reduce the attack surface of your SQL Server instance. It also has defense-in-depth and principles of least privilege strategies. It is essential to ensure your server is secure to protect your data and prevent future data breaches. A checklist is usually developed to offer guidelines to consider when doing a security checkup for an SQL Server. This paper expounds on checkpoints considered when developing the security checklist.

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First, physical security on the premise hardware will help protect a server from being tampered with, and it is possible by limiting the number of people who have access. The access room should also be monitored, and access restricted only to authorized personnel. Also, it is advisable to store backup data internally and offsite at a secure location to increase security. Users should have hardware alerts and warnings configured for errors to be logged for action and remediation. Besides, administrator and services accounts need to be monitored to avoid compromising data. Administrator shared logins need to be abolished and access controlled by active directory

Furthermore, an operating system security review is an essential step in the SQL Server security check. You need to ensure cumulative updates operating system patches are installed by creating a process to routinely test and install critical updates (Terrell, 2010). A firewall should be configured to help prevent unwanted access, virus, and malware, depending on the needs of the organizations. The number of accounts with access to the server should also be limited to Server Admin and Network Admin to prevent threats and attacks.

Most security checkup results have revealed that several security threats have been caused by SQL servers being improperly setup. Therefore, SQL Server service packs and fixes should be installed with the required components. One should revoke rights to public account on extended stored procedures and enable TDE. Additionally, the required network protocols and libraries should be installed, and protocol encryption enabled. Organizations need to ensure that only required SQL Server services have been installed and disable all unnecessary services.

Administrator and services accounts need to be monitored to avoid data being compromised. Administrator shared logins need to be abolished and access controlled by active directory. Essentially, SQL Server supports two authentication modes at the instance level, Windows Authentication, and Mixed Mode Authentication, further enhancing security offered (Carter, 2019). Service accounts should be configured with the least privilege and enforce a complex password policy.

In essence, organizations should be held responsible for ensuring that their SQL server has a regular security check. They need to ensure that their servers are not being tampered with and monitor the access room. The operating system's security should also be reviewed and configure a firewall. Moreover, the SQL server should be set up properly, and privileged accounts monitored.

References

Carter, P. A. (2019). Securing SQL Server DBAs Defending the Database. New York: APRESS.

Terrell, A. (2018, March 10). SQL Server Security Checklist. http://www.tywanterrell.com/securing-sql-server/sql-server-security-checklist/

Nagy, T. (2014, February 05). SQL Server Security Checklist. https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/3159/sql-server-security-checklist/