What is the role of user roles in database security?

User roles play a crucial role in database security by defining permissions and access levels for users. This is essential for maintaining the integrity and confidentiality of the data within the database. By assigning specific roles to users, a database administrator can control what data a user can read, modify, or delete, thus ensuring that users only have access to the information necessary for their jobs.

For example, an organization may have different roles such as "administrator," "editor," and "viewer." Each of these roles will have distinct permissions associated with them. An administrator may have complete access to all aspects of the database, an editor may be allowed to modify existing records, while a viewer may only have permissions to read data. This structured approach protects sensitive information from unauthorized access and mitigates the risk of data breaches.

The other options refer to concepts that do not align with the primary function of user roles. User roles do not limit the amount of data a database can store; rather, this is related to database design and architecture. They do not automatically encrypt sensitive data; encryption is a separate security measure that involves algorithms and keys to protect data integrity and privacy. Lastly, user roles are not designed for database recovery purposes; recovery generally involves backup systems and procedures to restore data after