Securing Relational Databases against Security Vulnerabilities: A Case of Microsoft SQL Server and PostgreSQL

Abstract This study evaluates mechanisms to secure relational databases against security vulnerabilities and utilized PostgreSQL and Microsoft SQL Server due to data breach incidences reported across the world. Emulation experiments with documentary review were employed to collect necessary study data. Identification of security features and vulnerabilities that are found to affect the data tier of the web applications were examined. The findings from the study have shown that Microsoft SQL Server is more security feature-rich in terms of Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability compared to PostgreSQL and Microsoft SQL Server is more resilient to security attacks in its default behavior compared to PostgreSQL.