Securing SQL Server 2012

Securing the server can mean a lot of things. You mention certificates in your question which is really encryption, not really security. Are you trying to simply encrypt the database or are you trying to prevent access? Or both?

Technodweeb!!!!!  Thanks for the post!!

My main goal is to prevent access to files with patient medical information that are contained in a sql server 2005 express database.  How would be the best way to go about it?

Sorry I'm late answering but the bank screwed up my account and EE was not able to process my payment.

Thanks again!!

Jerry

With medical information you need to study up on HIPPA Compliance. I cannot advise you on this topic. As for good first steps to safeguard your data would be to store things that are sensitive in an encrypted fashion as you were speaking of initially.

For the best performance, you could encrypt the data before placing it into the data fields. This would happen on-the-fly and each computer in the network would never feel the performance hit. The other way to do it would be to encrypt the tables in the SQL database itself which will be a much bigger performance hit as every transaction would require an encryption or decryption process to occur. This requires Express 2005 or greater which you have. The only other option would be to encrypt the file system where the database files reside, but this will be even more of a performance hit as every filesystem read and write will be affected.

Thanks for the post!!!!

How would I go about encrypting the data before placing it into the data fields and also how would I go about decrypting it when I read it back into the database.

THANKS!!!!

Jerry

WONDERFUL!!!