Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 8. Neo4j Security and Extension
Enterprises in today's world have various security requirements where they not only restrict
access to data but also need to comply with various security norms published by the gov-
ernment.
For example, the companies in the healthcare domain need to abide by HIPAA (The Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) security rule, which defines the national
standards for securing the data pertaining to health information of patients.
To meet these compliance levels and to protect confidential data from unauthorized access,
it is important that enterprise solutions provide flexibility to apply standard security meas-
ures and various hooks for defining the customized security rules.
This also introduces another important aspect of a software solution—extensibility of a
proposed solution where it defines approaches to extensibility and provides flexibility to
users to insert their own program routines.
Every business is different, with its own needs and path of growth. As the business grows,
we may need to extend or add functionality to the existing system for providing ease to the
users or may be comply with new security measures introduced by the government (such as
HIPAA), and for all these reasons, it is important that the proposed solution provides the
flexibility to introduce new APIs/functionalities.
Unlike security, extensibility may not be an explicit requirement, but for enterprises, it con-
tinues to remain as one of the evaluation criteria for any software solution.
In this chapter, we will discuss the security and extension provided by the Neo4j server,
which not only provides measures to protect from unauthorized access but also provides
flexibility to implant customized routines and extend the functionality of the Neo4j server.
This chapter will cover the following topics:
• Neo4j security
• API extension
