How Does Security Differ from User Management? You may be wondering what the difference between user management and database security is. After all, the last hour discussed user management, which seems to cover security. Although user management and database security are definitely related , each has its own purpose and work together to achieve a secure database. A well-planned and maintained user management program goes hand-in-hand with the overall security of a database. Users are assigned user accounts and passwords that give the users general access to the database. The user accounts within the database should be stored with information, such as user's actual name, office and department in which the user works, telephone number or extension, and the database name to which the user has access. Personal user information should only be accessible to the DBA. An initial password for the database user account is assigned by the DBA or security officer and should be changed immediately by the new user. Security entails more; for instance, if a user no longer requires certain privileges granted to him or her, those privileges should be revoked . If a user no longer requires access to the database, the user account should be dropped from the database.  | Generally, user management is the process of creating user accounts, removing user accounts, and keeping track of users' actions within the database. Database security is going a step further by granting privileges for specific database access, revoking those privileges from users, and taking measures to protect other parts of the database, such as the underlying database files. |  | Because this is a SQL book, not a database book, it focuses on database privileges. However, you should keep in mind that there are other aspects to database security, such as the protection of underlying database files, which holds equal importance with the distribution of database privileges. High-level database security can become complex and differs immensely between relational database implementations . |
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