dbo – Database Owner

In SQL Server, the dbo or Database Owner is a server-level principal that has full access to the owned database. Microsoft’s best practices recommend creating a discrete user, either an Active Directory domain user or…

Filesystem security for TDE Keys and Certificates

What is TDE, and why is filesystem security important? Transparent Database Encryption, or TDE, is used to encrypt an entire database. The encryption is “transparent” since once the database is loaded by SQL Server, anyone…

Cannot use Certificate because its Private Key is not Present

Introduction Transparent Database Encryption, or TDE as it’s colloquially known, is a great solution for data security “at rest”. That is, data is encrypted on-disk, preventing someone with a copy of the database files from…