Call: +44 (0)1904 557620 Call
Blog

Pete Finnigan's Oracle Security Weblog

This is the weblog for Pete Finnigan. Pete works in the area of Oracle security and he specialises in auditing Oracle databases for security issues. This weblog is aimed squarely at those interested in the security of their Oracle databases.

[Next entry: "Are your system triggers firing?"]

A new Oracle security based weblog



Hi,

Welcome to my new Oracle security related web log. I want this log to be a good source of Oracle security information for people who are interested in taking security seriously especially in relation to their databases. There is a growing interest in security in relation to databases in general and in Oracle security in particular. There are more and more papers being written and new products being released more and more regularly. I am not 100% sure about other logs out there but I think this could be the first web log aimed directly at Oracle security - let me know if I am wrong.



I am new to this web logging malarkey so please bear with me as I get used to it and build some useful content. I want to first explore some questions about the why's and wherefores of this log.


  • why do I want to write this web log?

    I want to write this for a number of reasons, first because it will allow me to create more content more easily and more quickly. I have a backlog of content that i want to add to my web site that I don't have the time to do at the moment. I was attracted to the web log idea as it’s a form of content management system where content can be added quickly without regard to writing loads of HTML. I am still going to update my ramblings, alerts, newsletter and oracle white papers sections and indeed all of the other pages as time allows but the web log will allow me to add sound bites, information, links and news more quickly.


  • what is going to be the aim of the web log?

    The aim of the log is to build up quality information about Oracle security in the form of quick notes, short articles, long papers, comments on other news happening at the time. It’s going to be Oracle security related almost all of the time. Sometimes I might delve into other areas but not too often.


  • what is going to be in the web log?

    we answered most of this in the last point. I am going to keep it almost completely Oracle security related but may include other areas from time to time. If i do the reason will be security related anyway. For instance I might talk about some internals issue or some programming issue but my interest is always from a security angle. It’s going to be short notes, links to papers, short articles and papers, longer papers... well you get the picture.


  • How often am I going to update it?

    Good question. The answer is as often as I can manage whilst still working full time on client projects. I will try and add something at least every few days. Let’s see how I get on over the first few weeks!


  • Will it be just Oracle security related?

    We have answered this already but to re-iterate, yes! But if the subject is not directly security or Oracle security related there will be an underlying security interest as to why i am talking about it.


  • Is it going to be syndicated?

    The short answer is yes, but its going to take me a few days to get it going. Also there is not much point syndicating the first postings, or is there?


  • The site layout

    As you will note I am using greymatter as the web log software, which i must say is excellent and easy to get installed and going and quite comprehensive. I have started with the standard templates so there will be a greymatter feel to the log pages for a while until i convert the look to match the rest of my site. So if you are reading these entries you will see some changes take place in the style of the site. The content will always remain though.




You are welcome to add comments to my postings as you see fit.

OK, that brings me to the end of this first posting. It’s not been at all security related or even about Oracle, so I guess I have not abided by the guidelines I have talked about above. The second post will change that though. Thanks for listening and welcome!

Kind regards

Pete Finnigan.

There has been 2 Comments posted on this article


September 20th, 2004 at 04:26 pm

Pete Finnigan says:

Test comment. Please ignore smile



September 22nd, 2004 at 10:20 am

Pete Finnigan says:

Allow me to be the first to place a (non-test) comment on your weblog. Great idea. I would however change the name of the page 'MY WEBLOG' of you get the chance.

To answer your question if there are other Oracle security weblogs: I thought there were very few Oracle blogs. I once found Mark Rittman's weblog at www.rittman.net. Today I also found www.orablogs.com and I can now say there are in fact many Oracle weblogs. But are there any active Oracle security weblogs? No.

A great addition (and hype amongst bloggers) would be a RSS feed. Mail clients like Mozilla Thunderbird can show these feeds and therefor it can alert users for new content.