Larry Ellison: The NSA Can’t Get Into Our Databases

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has claimed that the US National Security Agency (NSA) is not able to breach his company’s database software.

Responding to a question at a conference in San Francisco, Ellison said that customers actually complain that Oracle RDBMS has too many security features, reports Reuters.

After Edward Snowden revealed the extent of data collection by NSA, several researchers suggested that the US cloud companies, including Oracle, could lose their European clients due to privacy concerns.

Unbreakable

“To the best of our knowledge, an Oracle database hasn’t been broken into for a couple of decades by anybody,” said Ellison. “It’s so secure, there are people that complain.”

The CEO sought to reassure clients who are worried about the privacy of their data in the wake of the NSA scandal. Research by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation published in August 2013 predicted that the US cloud computing industry could lose as much as $35 billion (£22.5b) over three years as a result of customer trust issues.

Not everyone agrees with Ellison’s assessment of the platform. Security expert David Linchfield told Reuters that he considers database software from Oracle the most vulnerable, and frequently sees such systems being compromised.

Oracle also oversees the development of the popular Java framework, often criticised by the security community for its large number of vulnerabilities and slow update cycle.

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