With effect from 1st April 2023, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has made it mandatory for companies to maintain an audit trail throughout the year for transactions impacting books of accounts. The new audit trail requirement introduced by the MCA is an essential step towards greater transparency and accountability in business operations. Maintaining a detailed record of all transactions would help all stakeholders identify the source of the financial irregularities. Using these tools, auditors and investigative agencies will ensure a more compliant financial reporting framework.
The rules require each company to use accounting software that can record the “audit trail” to capture change history, including the ‘who’, ‘what’, and ‘when’ for relevant transactions impacting the books of accounts.
Here’s where Oracle Audit Vault and Database Firewall (AVDF) comes handy. It’s a comprehensive solution designed to enhance database security by providing a centralized platform for managing database audit data and protecting against unauthorized activities. AVDF offers various features that contribute to effective audit trail management. Here are some ways in which Oracle AVDF helps in audit trail:
- Centralized Audit Data Management:
AVDF collects and consolidates audit data from multiple Oracle and non-Oracle databases into a centralized repository. This centralization simplifies the management and analysis of audit data.
- Real-time Monitoring:
AVDF enables real-time monitoring of database activities. It can capture and analyze SQL statements, user activity, and other relevant events in real-time. This feature helps organizations to identify and respond to security threats promptly.
- Policy-Based Auditing:
AVDF allows administrators to define and enforce policies for auditing. This includes specifying which database activities should be audited, under what conditions, and for which users or roles. This policy-based approach helps organizations to tailor their audit trail to meet specific security and compliance requirements.
- Alerting and Notification:
AVDF provides alerting mechanisms that notify administrators of suspicious or unauthorized activities based on pre-defined policies. Alerts can be configured to trigger notifications, allowing organizations to take immediate action in response to potential security incidents.
- Secure Audit Data Storage:
AVDF ensures the secure storage of audit data, protecting it from tampering or unauthorized access. This is crucial for maintaining the integrity and reliability of the audit trail, which is often a key requirement for regulatory compliance.
- User and Session Monitoring:
AVDF monitors user activity and tracks database sessions. This information can be useful in detecting and investigating abnormal user behavior or unauthorized access attempts.
- Compliance Reporting:
AVDF provides pre-built and customizable reports to help organizations demonstrate compliance with regulatory requirements. These reports can streamline the auditing process during compliance assessments.
- Database Firewall:
In addition to audit trail management, AVDF includes a database firewall component that helps protect against SQL injection and other types of database attacks. It adds an additional layer of security by inspecting and filtering database traffic.
In summary, Oracle AVDF plays a vital role in audit trail management by providing centralized monitoring, policy-based auditing, real-time alerting, and secure storage of audit data. These features contribute to a more robust and efficient approach to database security and compliance.
If you wish to know more about our Oracle AVDF services, please write to us at marketing@cloverinfotech.com and our team of Oracle experts will be glad to assist you.
