Guarding Against SQL Server Attacks: Hacking, cracking, and protection techniques. In this information age, the data server has become the heart of a company. This onepiece of software controls the rhythm of most organizations and is used to pumpinformation lifeblood through the arteries of the network. Because of the critical nature ofthis application, the data server is also the one of the most popular targets for hackers. Ifa hacker owns this application, he can cause the company's "heart" to suffer a fatal arrest. Ironically, although most users are now aware of hackers, they still do not realize howsusceptible their database servers are to hack attacks. Thus, this article presents adescription of the primary methods of attacking database servers (also known as SQLservers) and shows you how to protect yourself from these attacks. You should note this information is not new. Many technical whitepapers go into greatdetail about how to perform SQL attacks, and numerous vulnerabilities have been postedto security lists that describe exactly how certain database applications can be exploited.This article was written for the curious non-SQL experts who do not care to know thedetails, and as a review to those who do use SQL regularly. For detailed informationabout specific attacks, see the references section at the end of this article.