{"id":108232,"date":"2026-01-27T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.red-gate.com\/simple-talk\/?p=108232"},"modified":"2026-03-03T12:39:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T12:39:47","slug":"securing-your-databases-in-2026-best-practices-for-the-evolving-threat-landscape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.red-gate.com\/simple-talk\/databases\/sql-server\/security\/securing-your-databases-in-2026-best-practices-for-the-evolving-threat-landscape\/","title":{"rendered":"How to keep your databases secure in 2026: a complete guide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 2026, your approach to both applications and databases must be focused on practical and technical real-world operations and use cases rather than just hype. If not, you\u2019re heading for trouble as threat actors<\/a> are becoming more sophisticated and the threat landscape changes all the time, too<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Threats to Databases in 2026: What Are They?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before we defend ourselves from anything, we have to understand what we\u2019re defending against. These days, with StackOverflow spiralling down into the abyss<\/a>, it\u2019s logical to assume that AI-related threats would be at the top of the list and so, if we pull an UNO<\/em> reverse card and ask ChatGPT what the threat landscape for databases would look like in 2026, we\u2019d receive a couple of points to work on. According to the AI chatbot:<\/p>\n\n\n

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  1. Most successful database compromises in 2026 still start with the abuse of valid credentials<\/strong>: the most likely threat that ChatGPT refers to here is credential stuffing<\/em>.

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  2. Database compromises and application attacks in general will be heavily assisted by AI<\/strong>: ChatGPT thinks that attackers will use AI to assist their exploit development, identify high-value tables faster, generate realistic query patterns to evade detection by firewalls and other appliances, and tune their methods to stay under alert thresholds if firewalls cannot be evaded. In other words, attackers will dramatically increase their efficiency by using AI to automate tasks that would be done manually<\/em>.

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  3. Database and authentication misconfigurations will remain the low-hanging fruit for years to come<\/strong>: according to AI, misconfigured databases and related configurations have been widely exploited prior to 2026<\/a> and this threat is likely to continue into the future.

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  4. Supply chain and dependency risks are growing<\/strong>: since databases rarely run alone, attackers are more likely to turn to their \u201cassistants\u201d (like database proxies such as ProxySQL<\/a>), insecure monitoring and backup agents, or even third-party SaaS<\/a> appliances facilitating database access.

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  5. Data exfiltration will be more subtle and there will be less \u201cin-your-face\u201d threats like <\/strong>website defacements<\/strong><\/a>: according to the chatbot, attackers in 2026 prefer small but frequent queries that attack a specific endpoint, selective extraction of specific columns within a database, and blending exfiltration operations into normal workloads. Website defacements will likely still be a thing but, unless it\u2019s a state-sponsored operation, they\u2019re less and less prevalent.

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  6. Compliance pressure is increasing the blast radius<\/strong>: according to AI, regulations haven\u2019t reduced breaches, but they have dramatically increased their impact.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

    In short, chatbots think that the threat landscape in 2026 includes credential stuffing, AI-assisted operations (don\u2019t mistake assistance with AI hacking into your database on its own), authentication misconfiguration threats, and threats related to dependency risks. With data exfiltration<\/a> growing, breaches becoming harder to detect, and regulatory obligations raising the stakes, our databases and applications say that it\u2019s critical to take the following actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Protecting Against Credential Stuffing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Remember the #1 threat on the list? Not SQL injection<\/a>. Not Cross-site Scripting (XSS)<\/a>, Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)<\/a>, not even AI taking over the world. The worst threat to your databases and the data within, according to ChatGPT, is the abuse of valid credentials, or in other words, credential stuffing<\/em>. Credential stuffing occurs when a malicious party obtains a set of valid credentials from a data breach and then \u201cstuffs\u201d those credentials into a login form belonging to an unrelated website. Oversimplified, everything looks like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"An<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cA list of valid credentials\u201d, nine out of ten times, relates to leaked data from a data breach. Now multiply these 6 logins by a couple billion times (there are thousands of data breaches in the wild and that\u2019s not even counting those in private possession of hackers<\/a>) and, unless all of your users are using a password manager with passwords consisting of 30 or more characters (be honest: we all know that\u2019s not the case), you can be damn sure that a couple of them will work and unlock the doors towards the back-end of your application. The user table of your database gets taken and the cycle repeats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Thankfully, though, protecting your database and application against credential stuffing is not that hard: all you have to do is apply brute-force prevention measures on all of your login forms. That may be as simple as allowing no more than X requests by the same user in the span of Y seconds, or adding 2FA<\/a> where applicable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Granted, you cannot do that through your database alone as you will need some back-end code working in conjunction with your database, but it really is as simple as adding a couple of columns in the users<\/em> table, then acting on them with a back-end programming language to check if they have values and what they are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"Image<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Such protection measures are an effective weapon against credential stuffing because it eliminates the core concept of the attack: a rapid \u201cspam\u201d of requests is no longer effective due to a \u201ccooldown\u201d from the outside (users cannot log in more than once in a certain amount of seconds) and thus, attempting billions of requests at once is no longer feasible – unless you want to wait a month or two, that is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Protect your data. Demonstrate compliance.<\/h3>\n
    \n With Redgate, stay ahead of threats with real-time monitoring and alerts, protect sensitive data with automated discovery & masking, and demonstrate compliance with traceability across every environment. <\/div>\n <\/div>\n Learn more<\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

    Blocking AI-Assisted Threats to Databases<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Now, while countering credential stuffing is quite straightforward, countering AI-assisted threats may not be. You see, the culprit here is a nefarious party using AI to enhance his\/her capabilities, and that means AI will be used to speed something up – instead of, for example, an attacker taking Sentry MBA<\/a> and wreaking havoc on your login form to hammer your database. As there\u2019s no definite attack vector, it\u2019s hard to protect against them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    At the same time, AI-assisted threats are just that: assisted<\/em> threats. This means an attacker will largely use his own knowledge on your application and then turn to AI if things turn sour. In other words, all you need to do here is to follow security guidelines applicable to your use case, and you should be fine. Most of those security guidelines will relate to the OWASP Top 10<\/a> and threats around it. For your database, that means the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"Image<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    The OWASP Top 10: What Are They?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    You need to increase your knowledge around the threats outlined in the OWASP Top 10<\/a> because, put simply, these are the worst security threats – a nightmare for the security community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It may not be updated often (the previous version of OWASP was released in 2021, and 2017 prior to that), but knowing your way around the top 10 is a great way to make your application resilient to the many threats that may cause harm in the future – especially when, at its core, the listing doesn\u2019t change all that much. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The last 3 listings included broken access control<\/a> and security misconfiguration<\/a> as well as injection<\/a> and insecure design<\/a>, indicating that approximately a quarter of issues are likely to stay there for multiple years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    With that in mind, crafting a strategy on how to make your application and database resilient to the threats outlined in the OWASP Top 10 is crucial. It\u2019s not that hard to do, either: for starters, implementing a Web Application Firewall (WAF)<\/a> and following the advice in the graph above will do just fine, assuming your code doesn\u2019t look like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"An<\/figure>\n\n\n\n