Security Issues in NoSQL Databases

The recent advance in cloud computing and distributed web applications has created the need to store large amount of data in distributed databases that provide high avail- ability and scalability. In recent years, a growing number of companies have adopted various types of non-relational databases, commonly referred to as NoSQL databases, and as the applications they serve emerge, they gain extensive market interest. These new database systems are not relational by definition and therefore they do not support full SQL functionality. Moreover, as opposed to relational databases they trade consistency and security for performance and scalability. As increasingly sensitive data is being stored in NoSQL databases, security issues become growing concerns. This paper reviews two of the most popular NoSQL databases (Cassandra and MongoDB) and outlines their main security features and problems.