outside

http://www.computerworlduk.com/management/security/data-control/news/index.cfm?newsid=6198

"There are nearly half a million database servers exposed on the Internet, without firewall protection according to UK-based security researcher David Litchfield.

"Litchfield took a look at just over 1 million randomly generated Internet Protocol [IP] addresses, checking them to see if he could access them on the IP ports reserved for Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle's database.

"He found 157 SQL servers and 53 Oracle servers. Litchfield then relied on known estimates of the number of systems on the Internet to arrive at his conclusion: "There are approximately 368,000 Microsoft SQl Servers... and about 124,000 Oracle database servers directly accessible on the Internet," he wrote in his report, due to be made public next week."