Why GDPR Matters for Database Security
Much has been written about the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into effect on May 28, 2018. Since then, GDPR has applied regardless of an organization’s location.
As a result, companies that store critical or sensitive data in database platforms must ensure that their entire IT environment is compliant. Otherwise, they risk severe penalties. These fines can reach €20 million or up to 4% of annual worldwide turnover, whichever is higher.
Therefore, protecting sensitive data is no longer optional. Instead, it has become a fundamental requirement for modern enterprise systems.
What Is SQL Server Always Encrypted?
To address these challenges, Always Encrypted was introduced as a security feature in Azure SQL Database and on‑premises SQL Server.
Specifically, Always Encrypted is designed to protect highly sensitive data, such as credit card numbers or national identification numbers. For example, this includes U.S. Social Security numbers.
Most importantly, encryption and decryption occur on the client side. Consequently, the database engine never has access to the encryption keys. This separation ensures that even database administrators cannot view sensitive information.
As a result, Always Encrypted provides a strong security boundary between data owners and data administrators, significantly reducing the risk of unauthorized access.
📝 One-Minute Brief
BizTalk Server 2020 supports SQL Server Always Encrypted to help organizations protect sensitive data and meet GDPR and security requirements. This whitepaper explains how to configure always encrypted columns in BizTalk Server databases and how to query and insert encrypted data securely.
Always Encrypted allows clients to encrypt sensitive data inside client applications and never reveal the encryption keys to the Database Engine (SQL Database or SQL Server). As a result, Always Encrypted provides a separation between those who own the data (and can view it) and those who manage the data (but cannot view it). By ensuring that on-premises database administrators, cloud database operators, or other high-privileged (but unauthorized) users cannot access the encrypted data, Always Encrypted enables customers to confidently store sensitive data outside of their direct control. This allows organizations to encrypt data at rest and in use for storage in Azure, to enable delegation of on-premises database administration to third parties, or to reduce security clearance requirements for their own DBA staff.
This whitepaper will give you a detailed understanding of the following:
- Creating SQL Server Database in BizTalk 2020
- Creating always encrypted column in BizTalk Server
- Querying and inserting data in the encrypted columns
Where can I download it
You can download the whitepaper here:
You can also find, download, and enjoy several other free whitepapers of my own here:
- Installing BizTalk Server 2016 in a Basic Multi-Computer Environment
- BizTalk Server and GDPR
- Step-by-step configuration to publish BizTalk operational data on Power BI
- BizTalk Server DB: Disaster Recovery, troubleshooting & best practices
- Installing and Configuring BizTalk360 in a Standalone Machine running BizTalk 2016
- Installing and Configuring Microsoft BizTalk 2013 R2 for RosettaNet
- Installing BizTalk Server 2016 in a Standalone Machine
- Installing BizTalk Server 2013 in a Standalone Machine
- End-to-end scenario – Receiving Messages through the HTTP Adapter
- BizTalk Server 2020: Hybrid Connectivity with Blob Storage Adapter
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