Townsend Security Data Privacy Blog

Encryption & Key Management in Microsoft SQL Server

Posted by Luke Probasco on Aug 21, 2015 9:27:00 AM

NIck Trenc - CoalfireThis is a guest blog by Nick Trenc, CISSP, QSA, PA-QSA, VCP.  Nick is an IT Security Architect at Coalfire Labs.


In any environment where potentially sensitive data is stored using Microsoft’s SQL Server, one of the key issues is how to best protect that data. Microsoft SQL Server does offer several security controls natively, but almost all of them require some sort of extensive configuration and management in order to be done according to security best practices. Additionally, SQL Server’s own security controls do face some shortcomings.

VMware Encryption Key Management PCI If using SQL Server’s own encryption tools, database encryption keys are stored right next to the data they are used to protect. This makes it easier for would be malicious users to capture both the protected data and the keys used to protect that data.

This is where Townsend Security’s Alliance Key Manager (AKM) comes in to play. Utilizing the built-in SQL support, IT administrators can generate, store, and manage keys within AKM away from the data those keys are used to protect. This enables separation of duties and dual control which are both best practices and requirements of several compliance frameworks.

Alliance Key Manager utilizes the Extensible Key Management (EKM) functionality of SQL Server (Enterprise Edition 2008 and newer) to centrally manage encryption keys. In addition, AKM also includes native support for SQL Server Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) which can be used to encrypt all of the tables within SQL Server. Finally, AKM includes support for SQL Server Cell Level Encryption (sometimes called Column Level Encryption), integrates directly with the Windows Certificate store, and includes features for key caching and mirroring for high availability.

For more information on using AKM to specifically meet PCI DSS compliance within a virtual environment (but also applicable to most environments), please see the VMware Product Applicability Guide for PCI 3.0 published by Coalfire Systems with collaboration with Townsend Security and VMware.

VMware Encryption Key Management PCI DSS

Topics: Encryption Key Management, SQL Server