20 April 2005

Crypto in SQL Server 2005

One of the coolest new features in Yukon (SQL Server 2005) in my opinion will be the addition of native support for cryptographic functions. The key functions are:
  • EncryptByKey
  • DecryptByKey
  • EncryptByPassPhrase
  • DecryptByPassPhrase
They do pretty much what you would expect based on their names. The primary reason why I like this is because it will mean that more data will be protected where today it is deemed not cost-effective. Of course the people who don't deem it cost-effective all work for big companies who don't seem to care if it's your identity that gets stolen. Can I just say how much I hate public record aggregators and clearing houses? ;-) I had a chance to play with this today and I absolutely will be taking advantage of this functionality. Even in my own databases which I store non-sensitive, but important data. Like my blog archive, media store, source code vault, etc.

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