Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 55
Establishing
Security Controls in a
Distributed Database
Sooun Lee, Mohamed Nour, and Soong H. Chung
I
,
N
RECENT
YEARS
THE
COMPUTING
ENVIRONMENT
HAS
SHIFTED
FROM
.
THE
This shift has
been motivated primarily by the increased decentralization of most busi-
ness operations as well as the perceived advantages of decentralized com-
puting environments.
CENTRALIZED
MODEL
TO
A
MORE
DECENTRALIZED
ONE
Distributed database systems (DDBSs) are an important element in distrib-
uted processing systems. The concept of DDBS has been evolving during
the past few years and a great deal of uncertainty still exists about what the
concept means and what these systems do. A particular challenge associ-
ated with distributed databases concerns information security. Although
DDBSs share some of the same security problems as centralized databases,
their unique characteristics add other security concerns not found in the
centralized environment.
This chapter describes the features and benefits of the distributed environ-
ment and how the proliferation of this recently introduced technology has
led to a greater need to establish an information security plan. The chapter
presents a model for securing data, taking into consideration the special
needs of this environment.
THE BENEFITS AND FEATURES OF DDBSS
There are perhaps as many definitions of DDBS as there are authors who
write about them; this is partly due to the relatively recent development of
the technology and the confusion surrounding its definition. A distributed
database environment has been described as a communications network
comprising individual sites with their own standalone databases and with
local operation. The database may be distributed because of geographical,
performance or effectiveness, and efficiency reasons.
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