Professional Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services with MDX and DAX

Chapter 14

Securing Multidimensional BISM

What's in this chapter?

• Securing source data
• Securing dimension data
• Securing cube data

Your data has value, and as with any item of value, you must protect it from outside threats. Security is an extremely important consideration in the area of business intelligence. Think about it — the keys to your company's profitability can be surfaced through your data and analytical applications. Just as you secure your personal belongings in a safe place, such as a safe deposit box, and appropriately provide access to authorized people, you must secure your corporate data and applications. Analysis Services provides you with ways to protect your data so that you can restrict access to only those users who are authorized.

The environment within which you work has a significant impact on the security precautions you should take. In general, if a server runs within the confines of a firewall, it helps to mitigate the external threats posed and provide increased protection. Disabling unused services or features that can potentially be exploited by hackers is yet another way to reduce risk. Running servers under least-privilege accounts such as the network service account also helps ensure your system cannot be compromised. Analysis Services provides you with the ability to enable or disable features such as stored procedures or ad-hoc queries, which thereby reduces the product areas likely to have security attacks and also run under least-privilege ...