Ben Johnston gives us a high-level overview of SQL Server security options:
SQL Server security structure, mechanisms and methods are very thoroughly documented in the Microsoft documentation, but it is quite daunting if you don’t already know about the functionality. I recently had a request to explain some security features of SQL Server so that internal audits could be completed. While thinking about the request and preparing for the meeting, I realized how many security features are available in SQL Server. The purpose of this post is not to thoroughly explain how all of these items work but to give an introduction to these features and a few recommendations. Given how many security-centered features are available, I’m sure I missed a few, and new features are added all the time, but these are the main features at the time of this writing.
This is solid as a view into what options are available. I do have at least one moderate-to-large qualm with the article: cross-database ownership chaining is something you should never enable; use module signing instead.