In a security context what are database views used for?
A.
To ensure referential integrity
B.
To allow easier access to data in a database
C.
To restrict user access to data in a database
D.
To provide audit trails
Explanation:
The use of a database view allows sensitive information to be hidden from unauthorized users. For example,
the employee table might contain employee name, address, office extension and sensitive information such as
social security number, etc. A view of the table could be constructed and assigned to the switchboard operator
that only included the name and office extension.
To ensure referential integrity is incorrect. Referential integrity states that for each foreign key value in a
database table, there must be another table that contains a record with that value as its primary key (CBK, p.
607). For example, consider a record in the line-items table of an order management database — this tablecontains a foreign key of part-number from the parts-master table. Referential integrity states that for each partnumber value in the line-items table, there must be a matching record with that same value in the parts- master
table. Referential integrity helps avoids consistency problems that could occur when, for example, a partnumber was deleted from parts-master that still appeared on records in the line-items table.
To allow easier access to the database is incorrect. While views can be used for this purpose by, for example,
combining information from several tables in a single view, this is not the best answer for the use of views in a
security context. To provide audit trails is incorrect. Since a view only affects what columns of a table are
shown, this has nothing to do with providing an audit trail.CBK, p. 632
AIOv3, p.168