Five Security Questions to ask about your BI Project

May 29, 2008 · Filed Under BI, Security

Security is often an afterthought on BI projects. The conventional thinking, as encouraged by BI vendors, is that the BI implementation will leverage the existing security infrastructure, be it LDAP, Active Directory Server, or otherwise. While that might be the case, thinking about security cannot end there. The following five questions need to asked, and answered, early on in any BI project:

How will penetration testing be done?
How are user IDs and passwords managed? (Single sign-on is the preferred answer.)
What is the encryption policy? 128-bit SSL encryption is typical, but sensitive data might require more.
Are the servers shared with other applications? Are the servers virtual servers? If so, what is in place to prevent data leaks, malicious or accidental?
What is the backup and disaster recovery plan?

As BI moves outside the firewall, onto mobile devices, and perhaps running on servers hosted by a 3rd party, the questions around security need to be asked early, and if necessary, often.

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