Oracle Data Safe Overview
Oracle Data Safe is a comprehensive, fully-integrated Cloud service within Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) that is designed to enhance the security and compliance of sensitive and regulated data in Oracle databases. This unified control center provides a robust set of features to protect, monitor, and manage database security across various Oracle database environments, including Oracle Cloud Databases, on-premises databases, and databases hosted in third-party public clouds.
Key Features and Functionality
Security Assessment
Oracle Data Safe allows users to perform thorough security assessments of their databases, creating and maintaining security baselines to rapidly identify configuration risks. This feature facilitates consistent use of security controls across the enterprise and provides comprehensive assessment reports on security parameters, controls, and user roles.
User Assessment
The service includes user assessment capabilities to help manage user risk. It identifies over-privileged users, reviews their privileges and roles, and provides insights into password and login-related settings. This helps in minimizing user risk by managing privileges and authentications effectively.
Data Discovery
Data Safe discovers and classifies sensitive data based on a library of over 150 predefined sensitive data types, which can be extended with custom types. This feature helps in understanding the data type, location, and amount of sensitive data within databases, enabling better risk assessment and data protection strategies.
Data Masking
The service offers data masking capabilities to replace sensitive data with realistic, yet obscured, data for safe use in non-production environments. It maintains complex data relationships necessary for testing, development, and analytics while minimizing the risk associated with sensitive data. Predefined and custom masking formats are available to meet specific organizational requirements.
Activity Auditing and Alerts
Oracle Data Safe manages database server audit policies, securely collecting, removing, and retaining audit data from database servers. It allows for the central management of audit policies and provides out-of-the-box audit reports or the ability to build custom reports to analyze database activity. This feature is crucial for compliance and forensic purposes.
SQL Firewall
The SQL Firewall, integrated into the Oracle Database 23c kernel, protects against risks such as SQL injection attacks and compromised accounts. It uses an allow-list approach to define allowable behavior, ensuring no false positives and providing a detective capability by logging all deviations from the policy. Data Safe enables the central management and monitoring of SQL Firewall policies across the fleet of target databases.
Compliance and Access Management
Oracle Data Safe helps address data security compliance requirements by providing features that support regulatory needs such as GDPR. It integrates with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Identity and Access Management (IAM) to control access to cloud resources, ensuring that only authorized users can access the features and target databases.
User Experience and Integration
- Unified Control Center: All features are accessible through a single, easy-to-use database security control center.
- Interactive Dashboard: Users can immediately understand their database security posture, view alerts, and manage data security at a glance.
- Centralized Management: Data Safe allows for the central management of security controls, audit policies, and SQL Firewall policies across multiple databases.
- Integration with OCI: The service is fully integrated with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, leveraging shared services including IAM to ensure secure and controlled access to cloud resources.
In summary, Oracle Data Safe is a powerful tool for protecting sensitive and regulated data in Oracle databases, offering a comprehensive suite of security, compliance, and management features that help organizations maintain robust database security and adhere to regulatory requirements.