Pete Finnigan

If we have an Oracle database table with no timestamp can we still get a date/time stamp when something happened? For instance if a table has a date/time column then yes of course we can know when the records changed....[Read More]

Posted by Pete On 25/06/26 At 10:53 AM

I have been involved with Oracle Database Vault recently with a deployment and I was asked how can someone view the database vault dictionary views when DV is installed. So, if we start with no DV enabled in our database....[Read More]

Posted by Pete On 02/06/26 At 12:49 PM

Let us imagine that I have a 21c database that has Database Vault (DV) enabled and I have forgotten my Database Vault owner password. In my case C##DVO. This user as well as a backup (That I have also forgotten....[Read More]

Posted by Pete On 28/05/26 At 02:17 PM

I am slightly late with this one as the event itself was on the 7th May 2026. The World Password Day 2026 is a day to try and highlight that passwords are weak. An article I saw on line said....[Read More]

Posted by Pete On 11/05/26 At 12:37 PM

I did a presentation at the UKOUG conference at the East Side rooms in Birmingham at the end of 2025. The focus of this talk was to highlight the problem of securing data held in an Oracle database without using....[Read More]

Posted by Pete On 05/05/26 At 11:25 AM

I have not had chance to write any detailed blogs of late as we have been very busy with paying work and also working on our software products as we released version 2025 of PFCLScan and version 2026 is very....[Read More]

Posted by Pete On 20/04/26 At 09:34 AM

It is just slightly over 23 years since I started PeteFinnigan.com Limited to focus just on helping people secure data in Oracle databases. The company was incorporated on the 12th February 2003, so 23 years ago. I started the company....[Read More]

Posted by Pete On 16/03/26 At 01:14 PM

I published a blog post back in 2024 where i used PFCLScan Version 2024 to scan various databases from 11g to 23c/ai. The blog is Compare the Database Security of Oracle Database 11g, 12c, 18c, 19c, 21c and 23c/ai and....[Read More]

Posted by Pete On 25/02/26 At 09:59 AM

We have just released a new version of PFCLScan at the end of last week. This is version 2025. PFCLScan is our database security tool for the Oracle database. There are a lot of changes and fixes to this version....[Read More]

Posted by Pete On 02/02/26 At 02:43 PM

I want to briefly discuss how we might detect that an attacker is trying to guess passwords and trying to connect to an Oracle database. One simple way that I have been aware of for many years, decades even is....[Read More]

Posted by Pete On 15/01/26 At 03:08 PM

I want to wish a very happy New year for 2026 to all of our customers, web site visitors and all of our social media connections and likers and commenters. Thanks for all of your support over the years!! We....[Read More]

Posted by Pete On 13/01/26 At 12:02 PM

PL/SQL packages can have a single BEGIN/EXCEPTION/END block as part of the package such as: create or replace package body block as procedure test is begin dbms_output.put_line('Hello from test()'); end; begin dbms_output.put_line('Hello from begin; end'); exception when others then dbms_output.put_line('BEGIN:['||sqlerrm||']')....[Read More]

Posted by Pete On 24/11/25 At 02:56 PM

Are your organisation’s Oracle databases fully secured or are you leaving the door ajar to unwanted access, data leaks or worse? If you’re responsible for managing, designing or auditing Oracle databases, then the upcoming three-day course by Pete Finnigan is....[Read More]

Posted by Pete On 11/11/25 At 10:01 AM

I spoke about AI and Oracle security back in February in this blog - AI and Oracle Security . I asked the question can we use AI (LLM / Generative AI) in Oracle Security and if so how? The two....[Read More]

Posted by Pete On 15/10/25 At 12:42 PM

If i want to create layered security in a database around something such as specific data or to protect access to a resource or perhaps control access to a privilege then we can create a security layer using standard features....[Read More]

Posted by Pete On 24/09/25 At 08:37 AM

I have just been notified that I have had two sessions accepted for the UKOUG conference from 30th November to 2nd December 2025 at the East Side Rooms in Birmingham. My first session is called Fuzzing PL/SQL and is overviewed....[Read More]

Posted by Pete On 22/09/25 At 04:41 PM

The 21st anniversary of this blog is coming up on the 20th September 2025. I started this blog on the 20th of September 2004 and it has been doing well ever since. I write almost exclusively on the subject of....[Read More]

Posted by Pete On 10/09/25 At 11:55 AM

I did a five part series on the security of AUDSYS.AUD$UNIFIED and showed how it works at a functional level and how it might be secured by Oracle and how we might design a similar system using standard database license....[Read More]

Posted by Pete On 09/09/25 At 08:56 AM

This is the next part of the series looking at the AUDSYS schema and AUD$UNIFIED table that Oracle has created and protected. In the first part we explored what AUDSYS and AUD$UNIFIED looks like in terms of security; in part....[Read More]

Posted by Pete On 03/09/25 At 11:38 AM

This is the next part (4th part) of the series exploring the AUDSYS schema and AUD$UNIFIED table that is READONLY with a lot of INSERTING and sometimes deleting. In the first part we explored the AUDSYS schema and the AUD$UNIFIED....[Read More]

Posted by Pete On 26/08/25 At 08:54 AM