DISCUSSIONUsers of r/streetwear ...what are your favorite hoodies for layering? Whether we like it or not, DBAs are becoming security experts. It’s not a job we want, but it’s been thrust upon us as we are the protectors of the organization’s data. Whether required by law, or just for self-protection, more and more of the data in our databases need to be encrypted. In SQL Server 2000 and earlier, if we wanted to encrypt data in our databases, this usually meant client-side encryption, where all the encryption and decryption occurred in the application, not in the database. This required custom-written applications. In SQL Server 2005, column-level (sometimes called cell-level) encryption became available. Now, encryption could occur within the database, but it was not easy to use, offered poor performance, and it required a re-architecture of the application, along with changes to the database schema. Even with these downsides, column-level encryption offered some advantages: such as granular security;

data is encrypted in memory and disk; and explicit key management, which allows different users to protect their own data using their own keys, even preventing the DBA from seeing a user’s data. Even so, the disadvantages were so great that only the most sensitive columns of a table were generally encrypted, which meant that much of the data in a database was still left unencrypted. In SQL Server 2008 (Enterprise Edition only), a new form of database encryption has been introduced: Transparent Data Encryption (TDE), which includes these major features: While TDE offers many benefits over other types of encryption, it has some of its own limitations, which are important to consider. For some organizations, they might want to consider implementing both column-level encryption (which still is available in SQL Server 2008) along with TDE for a database. While more complex to set up and administer, this combination offers greater security and encryption granularity than does either method used alone.

TDE is able to minimize resource utilization and hide its activities from user applications and the Relational Engine because all encryption/decryption occurs when data pages are moved between the buffer pool and disk. Let’s say that TDE has been turned on for a database that includes a single MDF file, a single LDF file, and tempdb. As I mentioned earlier, whenever any database on a SQL Server instance is encrypted using TDE, then the tempdb database for that instance is also encrypted. As SQL Server moves data pages from the buffer pool to the MDF file, the LDF file, or tempdb, the data is encrypted in real-time before it is written to disk. On the flip side, as data pages are moved from the MDF file or tempdb to the buffer pool, they are decrypted. In other words, when data is on disk, it is encrypted, but when data in memory, it is not encrypted. When a backup is made of an encrypted database, it cannot be restored unless the DBA has access to the certificate and master key that was used to encrypt the database.

This prevents anyone from stealing a backup and restoring it on a different SQL Server. The same goes for when you detach and reattach a database to a different SQL Server. TDE supports several different encryption options, such as AES with 128-bit, 192-bit, or 256-bit keys or 3 Key Triple DES. You make your choice when implementing TDE. Now, let’s take a brief look at how to turn on TDE for a database. This can only be done using Transact-SQL code, as SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio) has no option to perform this task. takk hoodieBefore we drill down into the details, let’s look at the four key steps required to turn on TDE. bomber lures hoodie Assuming one has not already been created for another reason, the first step is to create a master key. muscletech hoodie sale

The master key is a symmetric key used to protect the private keys of certificates and asymmetric keys. In this particular case, the master key is used to protect the certificate which will be created in the next step. When a master key is created, it is encrypted using the Triple DES encryption method and protected by a user-provided password. To create a master key, run the following code: –Create a master key –The master key must be created within the master database USE master ; hoodies tdeCREATE MASTER KEY ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = ‘User-Provided Password’ ; carolina panthers sweatshirt target Obviously, the password you provide should be very obscure, and you will want to document in a secure location.hoodie allen boise tickets

Create or Obtain a Certificate Protected by the Master Key For this example, we are going to create a new certificate, although you can use a pre-existing certificate if available. The certificate is used to protect the database encryption key that we will create next. In addition, this certificate is protected by the master key created in the previous step. –Create a certificate by the name of TDECert USE master ; CREATE CERTIFICATE TDECert WITH SUBJECT = ‘TDE Certificate’ ; Create a Database Encryption Key Now that the certificate has been created, the next step is to create a database encryption key and protect it with the certificate we created in the last step. This is the encryption key that is used by the database to encrypt all of the data. It is during this step that you choose which encryption method is used to encrypt your database. –Create Database Encryption Key Inside Database to Be Encrypted, –and Protect It with the Certificate USE AdventureWorks ;

GO CREATE DATABASE ENCRYPTION KEY WITH ALGORITHM = AES_256 ENCRYPTION BY SERVER CERTIFICATE TDECert ; Backup the Private Encryption Key and Certificate Once you have created the master key and certificate, they should be backed up immediately. If you lose these, you can’t move or restore the database. –Backup the private key and certificate to two separate disk files USE master ; GO BACKUP CERTIFICATE TDECert TO FILE = ‘c:certificate_backupsAdventureWorks_Certificate.cer’ WITH PRIVATE KEY ( FILE = ‘c:certificate_backupsNorthwindCert_Key.pvk’, ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = ‘User-Provided Password’ ) ; When this command is run, the master key and the certificate are taken from the master database and written to separate files (both in an encrypted format). The last step is to turn TDE on. Once you run the following command, the database will begin to encrypt itself. Depending on the size of the database, and the hardware running it, this process could be lengthy.

While it is possible to keep the database in production during this process, it will cause some user blocking and performance will suffer. Because of this, ideally you should only turn TDE on when the database is not being used. –Turn TDE on USE AdventureWorks ALTER DATABASE AdventureWorks SET ENCRYPTION ON ; If you want to watch the progress of the encryption, run this statement: SELECT DB_NAME(database_id), encryption_state FROM sys.dm_database_encryption_keys ; When the statement above is run, a state is returned. A database encryption state of “2” means that encryption has begun, and an encryption state of “3” indicates that encryption has completed. Once the tempdb database and the user database you are encrypting reach a state of “3,” you are ready to put them back into production. From this point on, the entire user database, and tempdb database will be encrypted, although your applications will never know the difference. If you got lost with all the keys and certificates required to implement TDE, you are not alone.