In an effort to help users get a better idea of the security status of their MySQL databases, McAfee today released a free open-source audit plug-in that provides detailed database activity audits and helps satisfy audit requirements for the wildly popular open source database platform.

McAfee promises that the software-only implementation is easy to deploy and is highly scalable, and ideal for protecting and monitoring MySQL databases in the cloud, with key features including:

• Visibility into database vulnerabilities: Insight into the security posture of each and every database in the environment

• Real-time protection across all multiple vectors: The non- intrusive plug-in requires no changes to the existing database and network architecture and offers reliable protection for databases from malicious or unauthorized activity across all threat vectors

• Compliance without downtime: Using McAfee virtual patching for databases, security updates can be made without having to take applications offline