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plementing Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) in SQL Server
The amount of data that businesses accumulate is continuously growing, and with that growth comes the increased likelihood of data breaches. Making sure that your data is secure is more important now than ever before. One way to ensure your data’s security is through Transparent Data Encryption (TDE), a feature of SQL Server. TDE performs real-time I/O encryption and decryption of the data and log files to protect data at rest. In this blog, we’ll go over how you can implement TDE in SQL Server.
Enabling TDE in SQL Server
TDE is relatively easy to implement, but it involves a few key steps. First, we need to create a master key, then a certificate protected by the master key, followed by a database encryption key, and finally, we set the database to use encryption.
The following SQL code demonstrates these steps:
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-- Step 1: Create Master Key USE master; GO CREATE MASTER KEY ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = '<password>'; GO -- Step 2: Create Certificate Protected by Master Key CREATE CERTIFICATE MyServerCert WITH SUBJECT = 'My Certificate'; GO -- Step 3: Create a Database Encryption Key USE MyDatabase; GO CREATE DATABASE ENCRYPTION KEY WITH ALGORITHM = AES_128 ENCRYPTION BY SERVER CERTIFICATE MyServerCert; GO -- Step 4: Set the Database to Use Encryption ALTER DATABASE MyDatabase SET ENCRYPTION ON; GO |
Key Points to remember:
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TDE doesn’t provide encryption across communication channels. Hence for data in transit, you should consider using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or Internet Protocol Security (IPSec).
Moving TDE Protected Database to another SQL Server
If you need to restore or attach the database to another SQL Server, you will need to move the certificate and the master key. Without this, you will not be able to retrieve the data.
Here is a sample code on how you can do it:
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-- On Source Server -- Backup the Certificate USE master GO BACKUP CERTIFICATE MyServerCert TO FILE = '<path_to_file>' WITH PRIVATE KEY ( FILE = '<path_to_private_key_file>', ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = '<password>' ); -- On Destination Server -- Create Master Key USE master GO CREATE MASTER KEY ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = '<password>' GO -- Create Certificate From Backup CREATE CERTIFICATE MyServerCert FROM FILE = '<path_to_file>' WITH PRIVATE KEY ( FILE = '<path_to_private_key_file>', DECRYPTION BY PASSWORD = '<password>' ); |
Remember to replace ‘
Conclusion
Protecting data at rest is crucial for maintaining data integrity and preventing unauthorized access. Transparent Data Encryption is an excellent tool that can be utilized in SQL Server to ensure data security. While implementing TDE requires careful planning, hopefully, this post gave you an understanding of how to enable TDE in SQL Server and how to move TDE protected databases.