Download DA & DBA lecture

COIS20026 Database
Development & Management
Week 10 – Data Administration
Data Administration

Objectives:



discuss the difference between data
administration and database
administration
describe the areas of responsibility of
the data administrator within an
organisation
describe the areas of responsibility of a
database administrator
2
Objectives (cont’d)


list & describe threats to data security
list & briefly describe the most
important security features of data
management software (eg views,
encryption, authentication etc)
3
The Importance of Data

Most of us will by now have
recognised the importance of data to
any organisation 



asset and resource
needs to be competently & carefully
managed
technology has made effective data
management achievable
effective data administration can assist
enormously in decision making
4
Ineffective Data Administration

Poor data administration is
characterised by:(see text p 484)




multiple definitions of the same data
entity and/or inconsistent
representations of same data elements
in separate databases
missing key data elements
low data quality levels
inadequate familiarity with existing
data
5
Data & database administration



Many organisations use a data
administrator and/or a database
administrator to manage these problems.
The data administrator takes responsibility
for the overall management of data
resources.
The database administrator deals with the
physical and technical issues of data
management.
6
Data Administrator


A data administrator is a high-level
function that is responsible for the
overall management of data
resources in an organisation,
including the maintenance of
definitions and standards
Must develop procedures & policy to
protect organisation’s data resources
7
Data Administrator

Duties of a data administrator
typically include:



establishment of data policies,
procedures & standards to protect &
control data resources
planning information architecture that
will meet an organisation’s diverse
information needs
resolution of data ownership conflicts
when data is shared
8
Data Administrator

Duties of a data administrator
(cont’d):


management of the information
repositories
internal marketing of importance of
adherence to procedures & policies
9
Data Administrator (cont’d)

Data administrator skills must include:



be able to interact with top-level
management, users & computing
specialists
be a highly skilled manager with good
negotiation, conflict resolution and
persuasion skills
have a sufficient level of technical skills to
interact with technical staff
10
Database Administration


Database administration is a
technical function that is responsible
for physical database design and for
dealing with technical issues such as
security enforcement, database
performance, backup & recovery.
DBA implements standards and
procedures developed by the DA
11
Database Administration

Database administration involves :






Selecting DBMS and related software
Installing & upgrading DBMS
Tuning database & query performance
physical database design &
implementation
enforcement of security & integrity
standards established by data
administrator
Data backup & recovery
12
Database Administrator

Database administrator skills should
include:




Good data modelling skills
Strong logical and physical design skills
Strong technical knowledge of
hardware, software, networking etc
understanding of database development
lifecycle
13
Database Administrator (cont’d)


thorough understanding of data
processing
Good managerial skills since the DBA
must manage other IS personnel
14
DA versus DBA

The roles of DA and DBA aren’t
always distinct 

essentially it could be said that the role
of DA is more management oriented &
role of DBA is more technically oriented
many organisations may not be able to
employ both a DA and a DBA, in which
case the DBA is usually responsible for
all the activities
15
DA versus DBA (cont’d)

Organisations will also differ in
allocations of responsibilities between
DA & DBA
today’s environment requires more rapid
development & deployment of databases
 new databases more likely to be
departmental & client/server
 prototyping often used in development
 blending of data administration &
database administration


(see figure 12-1 life-cycle phase functions & functions typically
performed by DA & DBA)
16
Database Security

Hoffer et al (2007,p 495) define
database security as:


‘protection of the data against
accidental or intentional loss,
destruction or misuse’
Since data is vital to any
organisation, it is important to
ensure that it is protected
17
Data Security Threats


Security policies & procedures need
to be established, implemented &
enforced to deal with possible data
security threats
Threats to data security can include

accidental losses including human error,
software & hardware breaches
theft & fraud - usually by electronic
access
18
Data Security Threats (cont’d)




loss of privacy or confidentiality
loss of data integrity
loss of availability
Data management software
(incorporated in DBMS) provides
security features that assist in
reducing/minimising threats
19
Data Management Software Security Features

Features include:






views or subschemas
authorisation rules to identify users &
restrict actions that can be taken
user-defined procedures - provide
additional constraints or limitations
encryption
authentication schemes
backup, journaling & checkpointing
capabilities (covered in week 9)
20
Security – Views

Views can provide some security by 


presenting only data which user
requires
user can be granted right to access view
but not underlying base table
not really considered to be a truly
adequate security measure since
unauthorised users may gain access
to the view & experimentation may
provide access to data
21
Security – Authorisation Rules

Authorisation rules 



incorporated in data management
system
can restrict access to data and actions
that can be taken by user
figure 12-5 of the text illustrates the
ways in which most current DBMS
implement authorisation rules
Does MS Access have this feature?
22
Security – User-defined
Procedures

Provision for creation of user-defined
security procedures by system
designers/user


in addition to authorisation rules
not offered by all DBMS products
23
Security – Encryption



The process of encoding data so that
it cannot be read
a routine provided by the DBMS
(some allow user defined routines)
needs to be complemented by a
decoding routine - care must be
taken to secure this also
24
Security – Authentication
Schemes

Used to positively identify a person
attempting to gain access to
computer or resources:


passwords have been used for quite a
long time - not really good at identifying
the individual person
biometric devices are showing some
promise of specifically identifying the
individual attempting access (eg. Acer has
released a laptop computer that uses
fingerprint identification)
25
Summary

Today we have:


distinguished between data
administration and database
administration
explored the areas of responsibility of
the data administrator versus the
database administrator
26
Summary (cont’d)


explored possible threats to data
security
identified the most important security
features of data management software
27