Data base design is influenced to an ever-greater degree by OO principles. As more DBMS products incorporate aspects of the object-oriented paradigm, data base administrators must tackle the unique security considerations of these systems and understand the emerging security model. Many of the established data base vendors are incorporating OO concepts into their products in an effort to facilitate data base design and development in the increasingly OO world of distributed processing. In addition to improving the process of data base design and administration, the incorporation of OO principles offers new tools for securing the information stored in the data base.
Secrecy means protecting a data base from unauthorized access by users and software applications.
Secrecy, in the context of data base security, includes a variety of threats incurred through unauthorized access. These threats range from the intentional theft or destruction of data to the acquisition of information through more subtle measures, such as inference. The improper release of information from reading data that was intentionally or accidentally accessed by unauthorized users. Securing data bases from unauthorized access is more difficult than controlling access to files managed by operating systems. This problem arises from the finer granularity that is used by data bases when handling files, attributes, and values.