Category: Application Architecture

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Database encryption – is it worthwhile?

The Wall Street Journal recently reported giant US-based health insurer Anthem had suffered a massive breach of its sensitive customer database. It is thought the entire contents of the database was successfully retrieved by the intruders, who had obtained a legitimate employee’s credentials. The Journal cited a source familiar with the breach, who said the sensitive database was not encrypted and that encryption would have made it more difficult for the intruders to obtain the information. This gives rise to an important security architecture question: when should you encrypt a database? What are the benefits? Would database encryption help? We have very few public details to work off, but in this case I believe database encryption would not have altered the outcome. The intruder had obtained a legitimate employee’s...