Today Dark Reading launches a new feature: the Database Security Tech Center, a subsite of Dark Reading devoted to bringing you news, product information, opinion, and analysis specifically focused on the topic of database security.This is the third of our Dark Reading Tech Centers, which are designed to provide you with a more focused view of specific issues, threats, and technologies in the world of IT security. The Tech Centers offer in-depth reports and studies, breaking news, and links to additional articles and information not found on the main Dark Reading site. Just as a traditional newspaper offers in-depth sections or supplements on sports, entertainment, or politics, the Dark Reading Tech Centers provide an additional range of news and information for readers who have an interest in specific aspects of IT security.

While much of our coverage to date has focused on attacks and vulnerabilities -- and the process of building perimeter defenses against them -- the Database Security Tech Center focuses specifically on vulnerabilities, issues, and defenses of the application that is most likely to serve your organization's most sensitive data: the enterprise database. On this site, we'll examine the reasons why databases are breached, uncover the common mistakes made by security people and database administrators, and look at the latest technology for defending the database against internal and external attacks.

In addition, we'll analyze the trends, markets, and regulations that shape database security defenses. We'll also look at some of the most egregious database compromises, asking questions about why they occurred and what could have been done to prevent them. And we'll discuss the aftermath of major database breaches to help you form a plan for incident response and breach disclosure in case the worst should happen to your organization.

The goal of the Database Security Tech Center is to help you make informed decisions about how to build secure databases, and how to build defenses against their potential insecurities. We'll discuss database development, in-depth security measures, and the causes and effects of database breaches. And we'll deliver all of this news and information in a language and context that make it useful to both savvy security professionals and new database administrators who don't know much about security.

Of course, the creation of the Database Security Tech Center doesn't mean that our coverage of this important topic on the main Dark Reading site will decrease. You'll continue to see stories about database issues on our home page, and the subject will remain a topic of discussion for our bloggers and on our message boards. But when you click on those stories or blogs, you'll be brought here, to the Database Security Tech Center, so that you can see the full range of news and information that we offer on the topic, and gain additional context to support what you're reading.

We think the Database Tech Center will help you understand the issues and vulnerabilities surrounding databases and make solid decisions about the offerings that might work best for your organization. But in the end, this is your site. Please let us know what you think of the Tech Center, our coverage of database security, and what you'd like to see us cover in more depth. We can't guarantee we'll answer every query with a story or in-depth report, but we'll do our best to meet your needs for additional information and analysis.

If it has to do with securing databases -- or any large repository of structured data -- you'll find it here. And if you don't, let us know. Our goal is to be the most comprehensive source of database security news and information on the Web.