Disabling Database Encryption
SQL Server 2008 introduced TDE (either Total Database Encryption or Transparent Database Encryption, I've seen both) which is a way to get a passive encryption in place on the database to prevent people from stealing backups or detaching files & stealing them. It works with a Certificate in the server, and there are mechanisms around password protection of the Certificates, management etc. Setting it up & turning it on are very easy. This example is from a chapter on a book I'm working on: USE master; GO CREATE MASTER KEY ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'Chapter8Backup'; GO CREATE CERTIFICATE Chapter8Certificate WITH SUBJECT = 'Chapter 8 Certificate' GO USE AdventureWorksLT GO CREATE DATABASE ENCRYPTION KEY WITH ALGORITHM = AES_128 ENCRYPTION BY SERVER CERTIFICATE Chapter8Certificate GO ALTER DATABASE AdventureWorksLT SET ENCRYPTION ON GO…