Secure-auditing facility

Auditing creates a record of selected activities that users perform. An audit administrator who analyzes the audit trail can use these records for the following purposes:

• To detect unusual or suspicious user actions and identify the specific users who performed those actions
• To detect unauthorized access attempts
• To assess potential security damage
• To provide evidence in investigations, if necessary
• To provide a passive deterrent against unwanted activities, as long as users know that their actions might be audited

You cannot use auditing to track transactions to reconstruct a database. The database server has archive and backup facilities for that purpose. The IBM® Informix® Backup and Restore Guide explains these facilities.