SQL For Dummies®

Chapter 13. Providing Database Security

In This Chapter

• Controlling access to database tables

• Deciding who has access to what

• Granting access privileges

• Taking access privileges away

• Defeating attempts at unauthorized access

• Passing on the power to grant privileges

A system administrator must have special knowledge of how a database works. That's why, in preceding chapters, I discuss the parts of SQL that create databases and manipulate data — and then (in Chapter 3) introduce SQL's facilities for protecting databases from harm or misuse. In this chapter, I go into more depth on the subject of misuse.

The person in charge of a database can determine who has access to the database — and can set users' access levels, granting or revoking access to aspects of the system. The system administrator can even grant — or revoke — the right to grant and revoke access privileges. If you use them correctly, the security tools that SQL provides are powerful protectors of important data. Used incorrectly, these same tools can tie up the efforts of legitimate users in a big knot of red tape when they're just trying to do their jobs.

Because databases often contain sensitive information that you shouldn't make available to everyone, SQL provides different levels of access — from complete to none, with several levels in between. By controlling which operations each authorized user can perform, the database administrator can make available all the data that the users need to do their jobs — but restrict access ...