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Securing the Root Keys when using TDE

Matthew McGiffen puts the keys behind lock and key:

In this quick post we’re going to look at an additional step you should take to secure your TDE databases. This is a step you won’t find in any other documentation on setting up TDE in SQL Server that I’ve seen, so it probably bears a little explaining.

Matthew has solid advice, though if someone does get the Local Admin credentials (e.g., through a spearphishing attack), that person could still eventually gain access to the underlying data. I get that at some point, things will break, so it’s mostly a matter of being aware what can cause that break and minimizing the likelihood of it occurring.