Data Insecurity: A Perspective on Data Encryption

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Data Insecurity: A Perspective on Data Encryption

GreyBeard

Mr or Mrs. 500

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March 7, 2013 at 12:02 am

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Comments posted to this topic are about the item Data Insecurity: A Perspective on Data Encryption

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gporta SSC Journeyman Points: 92 More actions · Answer 1

Thanks for the article. Based on your experience, do you have any suggestion for column encryption of PII data (for instance Last Name) for which an application accessing this data has to perform partial searches on a table with several million rows?

Thanks in advance,

German P.

vliet SSCommitted Points: 1998 More actions · Answer 2

Microsoft Windows provides support for database encryption by leveraging the Data Protection API (DPAPI) which protects the Service Master Key (SMK) which, in turn, protects the Database Master Key (DMK) which, in turn, is used to protect the certificate or asymmetric keys which, in turn, are used to protect the Database Encryption Key (DEK). These dependencies create a security chain from the operating system to the data eliminating user interaction thus strengthening security.

[p]In my humble opinion eliminating user interaction does not strengthen security. Most data breaches are only possible because no user interaction is required. A hacker does not need to show up and identify himself, he is not required to present a physical key, token or some specific mobile device to access the data, all he needs to do is creating some anonymous process that interacts with the programs managing your data to obtain that sensitive information. He does not have to enter the building to grab it, no one will ever notice his actions because he didn't do anything, his software does all the tricks.[/p]

[p]If you have to turn a physical knob and insert two distinct keys to get into a safe, you need a whole lot of time to try every possible combination and somehow steel or copy both keys from different people at different locations. If all you need to do is enter a number on an electronic keypad, chances are that some smart guy may connect a device that generates combinations at light speed and opening that safe will require no more than a few seconds.[/p]

[p]Physical actions on physical devices by physical users does strengthen security. However, if you protect your data in such way that it is only accessable from certain physical workstations, many people will complain because they are so used to have access to their data from all around the world. If you need to secure your data, keep it in a secured room and post a guard at the entrance. Every encryption is as weak as the passwords used, and I don't have to tell you that with the amount of systems requiring passwords today nearly every administrator keeps a password list somewhere stored in a file on a server, often named passwords to show the hacker what's inside.[/p]

Paulo A. Nascimento SSCommitted Points: 1717 More actions · Answer 3

Hello

Where in the article can I find the T-SQL script for creating the client table ?

Thanks,

--

Paulo

SqlOnMyMind SSCertifiable Points: 5062 More actions · Answer 4

Paulo A. Nascimento (3/7/2013)
Hello
Where in the article can I find the T-SQL script for creating the client table ?
Thanks,
--
Paulo

I, too, could not view the image showing the ClientTable definition. It was a .png file. I was able to view it by using Chrome browser. It is a typical "create table" script, with columns circled that the author flagged as sensitive or secret.

GreyBeard Mr or Mrs. 500 Points: 535 More actions · Answer 5

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Client](

[ID] [int] IDENTITY(100,1) NOT NULL,

[FirstName] [varchar](50) NULL,

[MiddleName] [varchar](50) NULL,

[LastName] [varchar](50) NULL,

[NationalID] [varchar](15) NULL,

[Address1] [varchar](50) NULL,

[Address2] [varchar](50) NULL,

[City] [varchar](50) NULL,

[State] [char](2) NULL,

[PostalCode] [char](10) NULL,

[BirthDate] [date] NULL,

[HomePhoneNumber] [char](10) NULL,

[WorkPhoneNumber] [char](10) NULL,

[CellPhoneNumber] [char](10) NULL,

[EmailAddress1] [varchar](50) NULL,

[EmailAddress2] [varchar](50) NULL

)

GreyBeard Mr or Mrs. 500 Points: 535 More actions · Answer 6