What do you think this is?

If you're developing for the web (or something else) and you need to connect to an Oracle database, such as an Oracle Autonomous Database that comes for free with oracle cloud free tier, you may run to the typical problem of storing db connection credentials in configuration files and scripts. Nevertheless, Oracle has, since ages, a functionality called Oracle Wallet that can help you manage these connections more securely. Keep in mind that Oracle migrates away from Wallets, but my understanding is that this is a response to usability concerns, as the security standard is not maintained in the new set-up.

Once upon a time I spent a total of 4 hours (over three days) in meetings, stating that I will definitely not approve a security exception. At least, not until someone demonstrates that the exception requested, removes the root cause or is a valid workaround.

During the last 3 months I got more times than expected in discussions about patch and vulnerability management. I need to say, there is much misunderstanding going around about these two processes; so much that I could argue that several organizations are exposing themselves significantly, just because the touch points and (lack of) dependencies in these two processes are not clear.

I love challenges, and working with Oracle products has always been a challenge for me. This love/hate relationship started ~20 years ago when I could not set up the first version of Oracle Internet Directory, following the documentation word by word! I had to "fix" several scripts to make it install, and in the end, even though it installed, it still wouldn't work... It was the only product I cared enough to remember that failure after so many years. Or maybe, the only product I failed to tame.