Hello all,

I've been doing a lot of research on column encrypting/decryping in SQL
Server 2005.  I definitely understand it a lot better than I did, but I'm
still hazy on some issues.

If I have a column which is normally char(9) (say for storing an SSN), with
encryption, I need this column to be of type varbinary.  Correct?
However, how do I determine the necessary length of the varbinary?

Any one have any good tutorials about encryption with SQL2005?

Here's basically what I'm trying to accomplish:
1) ASP.NET2/C# webform accepts a 9-digit field for SSN
2) webform calls a SQL2005 stored proc which has a char(9) parameter for the
SSN.
3) In the stored proc, encrypt the char(9) SSN and store it in the necessary
table
4) And at some point later, a user with appropriate authority can login and
call a stored proc which will return the decrypted char(9) ssn.

It doesn't seem terribly difficult, but I haven't had much
luck/understanding what I've found on google and msdn.

Thanks,
Brian

Hello Brian,

I understand that you want to know how to encrypt the column data.

You could follow this MSDN article to use the synmetic key

How to: Encrypt a Column of Data
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms179331(SQL.90).aspx

Hope this helps.

Sincerely,

Wei Lu
Microsoft Online Community Support

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