Responsible for a big-time database? Worried about security? If so, you might want to take a look at a report complied by Eric Ogren, a security analyst for Enterprise Strategy Group, that examines security vulnerabilities in MySQL, Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase, and DB2.
What Ogren found was that, assuming proper execution, Microsoft's SQL Server exhibited fewer vulnerabilities than all others. More specifically, based on Common Vulnerabilites and Exposures (CVE) data documented in the National Vulnerability Database:
Oracle has 70 vulnerabilities
MySQL has 59
Sybase has seven
DB2 has four
SQL Server has two
According to Ogren, some of the security-related features built into Microsoft's SQL Server has helped keep its number of reported bugs to a minimum.