Encryption

How can our organization hide the contents of non-public data fields while still making the data's layout available to database administrators, developers, and business analysts who must work with the data? More specifically, how can we make the data fiel

You work in a shop that puts business or application logic in SQL Server using stored procedures, views and functions to return values to the calling applications or perform tasks. This is not unusual for companies that use the SQL Server layer to perform

Financial firms have sensitive data including credit card numbers, social security numbers, financial history, etc. Based on the sensitivity of the data, it needs to be secured and protected from unauthorized access. With data stored in tables, you have

In Part 1, we looked out how to identify PII data in your databases. In this tip we look at how to lock down PII data using SQL Server security. Protecting your data is very important and the recent publicity over the theft of Sony PSN data underscores

We're pretty confident that we have locked down and encrypted our financial data, but a lot of our customer's PII (Personally Identifiable Information) data is still held in unencrypted form. This data is able to be selected directly by read only business

I need to encrypt my data within SQL Server and I plan on using the built-in encryption functionality in SQL Server 2005 and 2008. What's the difference between symmetric keys and asymmetric keys?

Encryption of data at rest is becoming more and more crucial in today�s world. This tip illustrates how to achive transparent file encryption with SQL 2005 or SQL 2000.

I want to use SQL Server-based encryption, but I want some additional protection so that even if someone has access to the keys, they can't arbitrarily decrypt the data. I've read about authenticators but am not sure how to use them. How do they work?

The company I work for has decided to use the encryption technology available in SQL Server 2005. We have almost everything ironed out except for which keys to use in the development, testing, and production environments. Should we use one key for all thr

While reviewing the new features in SQL Server 2008, we noticed Transparent Data Encryption. This sounds very interesting. Could you provide us with a basic explanation and how to implement it?

Security is a major concern in any organization. Database backups are prone to theft and can be restored on any SQL Server instance. As we are looking through the new features in SQL Server 2008 we found a potentially interesting one called Transparent Da

I need to encrypt data in my SQL Server 2005 database and currently have a Database Master Key and Certificate installed. Can I encrypt using only a certificate? The answer is yes. Symmetric and asymmetric keys are not required for the encryption/decryp

I have a Database Master Key created in the database. Can I start encrypting data in my database now? The answer is not yet. A Database Master Key per se' cannot encrypt data. You either need another key or a certificate. In this second tip of a four-pa

In this tip we look at how to manage database master keys for SQL Server.

When the most valuable component in your environment is storing sensitive data, doing so in clear text and relying on other security mechanisms to protect the data has come and gone. As companies begin to use SQL Server for all their mission critical app