This post is my entry for Adam Machanic's T-SQL Tuesday #004, hosted this time by Mike Walsh. I was at the RSA Conference in San Francisco last week discussing database encryption options in SQL Server 2008 and one question seemed to keep coming up. The question concerns FILESTREAM and Transparent Data Encryption (TDE), but first a little ...

I ran into an issue the other day and I needed a solution for automically configuring my SSIS packages from securely stored DBMS connection strings. Problem is that most DBMSs don’t support Integrated Authentication—they require a username and password. Storing the username/password combo in the connection string in plain text is a security risk, ...

I'll be presenting at a SafeNet-sponsored virtual event on Dec. 15.  The topic is ''SQL 2008 Encryption EKM Scenarios''.  We'll be discussing the practical applications of EKM in SQL Server 2008, and the most common scenarios that require EKM functionality.  If you wonder what EKM is, or if you do know what EKM is but ...

The encryption features in SQL Server 2005 and 2008 provide the ability to create asymmetric encryption key pairs (RSA public/private key pairs) using the T-SQL CREATE ASYMMETRIC KEY statement. One feature that was left out, however, is the ability to backup and restore asymmetric key pairs generated on the server. Once an asymmetric key pair has ...

It's well-known by now that SQL Server 2005 and 2008 include new encryption-related statements that allow you to create and administer encryption keys. You can use CREATE CERTIFICATE to create or import a certificate or DROP ASYMMETRIC KEY to remove an asymmetric key from the database, for instance.  One of the interesting ommissions ...

Tuesday night I'll be presenting on SQL Server encryption to the NJSQL user's group in Parsippany.  More information about this event and NJSQL can be found here: http://njsql.org/Default.aspx. UPDATE: Uploaded the encryption presentation, attached to this post.

SQL Server 2008 has an impressive array of encryption features -- cell-level symmetric and asymmetric encryption, key management, EKM, TDE, and more. But they do have some limitations. Symmetric encryption functions, for instance, can only encrypt slightly less than 8,000 bytes of data (the additional information like random IV and ...