Oracle Makes Bid to Streamline Data Auditing

May 8, 2007

Oracle Audit Vault aims to help simplify data auditing and aid in meeting the regulatory requirements businesses face.

Oracle has released an audit management tool company officials say will help address both regulatory compliance issues and the so-called insider threat facing enterprises.

Organizations can use Oracle Audit Vault to centrally manage their database auditing configuration and deploy uniform audit policies, said Vipin Samar, vice president of database security at Oracle. With this release, businesses can consolidate audit silos across their organization and house all audit data in a single warehouse, he added.

"It's really about knowing what's happening inside those databases, who's doing what," Samar said in an interview with eWEEK.

Oracle officials also stated Audit Vault can help cut the cost of compliance by making it easier for auditors and security personnel to manage and report on audit data, officials added. In addition, customers can use Oracle Audit Vault's open-data warehouse schema and generate reports from their audit repository using Oracle BI Publisher or third-party reporting tools.

Customers who need to comply with the audit requirements of regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act also may benefit from the features of Audit Vault.

"I think database auditing and monitoring helps to demonstrate to auditors and regulators that controls are in place...and provide evidence of the effectiveness of those controls," said Trent Henry, an analyst with the Midvale, Utah-based Burton Group, in an interview.

"Architecturally, this is a detective control, which we think is a necessary element of a systematic, comprehensive protection portfolio," he continued. "Preventive controls, like encryption, access controls, etc. need to be monitored for correct policies and proper operation. That's what a monitoring tool like this does, so it's highly complementary (to Oracle's other database products)."

Currently, Oracle Audit Vault only works with Oracle Database 10gRelease 2, Oracle Database 10g and Oracle9i Database Release 2. It is not compatible with databases from other vendors, though Samar said there are plans to add support for non-Oracle products within the next fiscal year.

Oracle Audit Vault Server is priced at $50,000 per processor.

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