A user passes through two stages of security when working in Microsoft® SQL Server™: authentication and permissions validation. The authentication stage identifies the user using a login account and verifies only the ability to connect with SQL Server. If authentication is successful, the user connects to SQL Server. The user then needs permissions to access databases on the server, which is done by using an account in each database, mapped to the user login. The permissions validation stage controls the activities the user is allowed to perform in the SQL Server database.