Other observers said users have focused on guarding the entry points to their networks when they should be worrying about internal threats posed by unscrupulous employees with high-level access.

"At Fort Knox, the fuss isn't about who's guarding the brick wall -- it's who's watching the gold," said Raj Sablach, senior vice president of operations at Embarcadero Technologies Inc. The San Francisco-based vendor offers a real-time database activity monitor that Sablach said is easier to use than built-in tools and doesn't slow the database.

Other vendors of database security tools include Lumigent Technologies Inc., IPLocks Inc., Guardium Inc. and Protegrity Corp.

Built-in functions

Users and analysts agree that the latest commercial databases are much more secure out of the box than their predecessors.