Test Databases Are Vulnerable, Too

Forrester Research: Test Databases Are Vulnerable, Too

"When it comes to securing private data, all databases - production and nonproduction - should be treated equally. It's the data that counts, not the type of database. Test databases are often replicas of production data, and if they store private data without strong security policies and procedures, they could easily fall prey to hackers. ..."

SO true. Production DB's are usually in secure data centers, with access security, guarded by robots with lasers, etc, etc.

All to often I've seen production Db's backed up and given to someone for testing/troubleshooting/dev/etc with "live" data (sometimes you just have to use real world data...).
The problem is that those test systems were... um... well... not guarded by robots with lasers.

What about your test/QA/Live-dev/troubleshooting/demo DB's? Are they secure and safe? Do you even know were all the copies are? And they source backup's?

Right... No, I believe you... really... :|