Look at the lines #221 to #224 – these lines define the path towards the certificate authority (ca), certificate (cert), and the key (key.) Therequire_secure_transportvariable, on the other hand, specifies that all clients connecting to MySQL should be using encrypted connections. Creating SSL certificates (the certificates that enable encryption of data to be possible) is also rather easy in all database management systems – MySQL provides a guide on how to do thathere.
When to Encrypt Data?
For those who are familiar with the aforementioned data encryption methods, a natural question might arise – when should we encrypt our data in the first place? What encryption method to use? And the answers to these questions are rather simple: you should encrypt data everytime it’s sensitive enough to cause some damage to the reputation or data of the company you’re working at. In the best case scenario, you should consider encrypting data both in transit and at rest, but for most, encrypting data at rest will be enough: just make sure your website uses SSL (https://) to protect the data flowing back and forth from your website. If you find yourself having trouble encrypting data, though, talk to the security engineers over at the company you find yourself working at – they will most likely be able to find a solution to almost every encryption-related issue.
Also consider checking outdata breach search engineslike the one built by BreachDirectory – they will help your company prevent being a victim of data breaches by letting you implement data breach data into the infrastructure of your company. Encryption is important, and its importance is even more significant when you look at the incidents that have occurred in the past.
Summary
Handling encrypted data inside of any database instance is not the simplest of tasks – however, with adequate preparation and know-how of how security issues are handled in the first place, everything can be done.
Make sure to explore the encryption capabilities offered by your DBMS of choice before employing any of them, play around with them in a demo environment before rolling out any changes to production, and until next time!
