SQL Server Database Encryption

[garyxjones]

Is it possible or has anyone tried setting the encryption property for a sql server .mdf file to be encrypted through the "Properties/Advanced/Encrypt Contents to Secure Data" checkbox in the Windows 2000 Explorer?

I've inherited a sql server database that has this option selected and our customer has been told their database is encrypted, but I'm not sure if it's doing any good.

I've read that copying a Windows 2000 NTFS encrypted file to an NT 4.0 NTFS partition will remove the encryption.

Was hoping someone has experience with this.

 

[jjgraf]

You are right on the coping files to other partitions that are not NTFS 5.0 and the directory the file being coped to must be encrypted also.

It is not helpful at all that the database is encrypted on the server hard drive. Sense the file is encrypted the customer is suffering from a performance hit everytime any thing happens.

This does not encrypt the transmission of the data across the network. you must enable multi-protocol encrytion, or use IP-Sec

hope this help

BTW if the server crashes it makes it far more difficult to recover the data because you may lose the encryption keys.