Introduction

No matter how secure a system is there will always exist a risk: it can be penetrated by an outsider that has gained access or compromised by an insider that has misused their access privileges. In cases like this, one way to detect the origin of the attack or the source of the inappropriate data access or modification is to implement sensible data audits. Therefore, it is important to emphasize the necessity of implementing appropriate database and operating system audits as a major part of a system security methodology. Organizations that have implemented an effective audit policy are in a better position to protect their data assets.

In addition to auditing, we should develop and implement appropriate alerting systems to proactively detect and prevent attacks on systems and data.

There are many possible attacks that can target the database, listener, and configuration files. Normal activities such as routine system and database patching as well as application and design upgrades...