Admin Rights for Everyone
Steve thinks administrator rights for too many people is a bad idea, but even when it's a limited group, he recommends some sort of governance.
2026-08-26
255 reads
Security
Kerberos Authentication for Aurora PostgreSQL: Mapping AD Groups to Database Roles
Learn how you can enable map your security roles in Aurora PostgreSQL to AD groups using Kerberos.
2026-08-26
1,276 reads
The “Successful Login” Dilemma: Why Your Login Auditing Strategy Might Be Hurting Your Server
From bloated error logs to risky logon triggers, a guide to auditing connections without killing performance.
2026-07-29
2,605 reads
A Security and AI Fail
Security is an important consideration for anyone working with data, but it's especially a concern with AI.
2026-07-15
174 reads
The New Wave of Security Threats
New AI tools are discovering older vulnerabilities in software, as well as new ones. Get ready for a bunch of patches to come out.
2026-05-09
172 reads
Securing Your Databases in 2026: Best Practices for the Evolving Threat Landscape
In 2026, your approach to both applications and databases must be focused on practical and technical real-world operations and use cases rather than just hype.
2026-02-16
Exploiting SQL Server Date Correlation Optimization: How Tampered Backups Enable Cross-Database Data Leaks
This article reveals a critical SQL Server flaw: attackers can weaponize Date Correlation Optimization (DCO) views in restored backups
2026-02-13
No Defaults Passwords Ever
Steve doesn't see a reason why we should have default passwords on systems ever.
2026-01-17
124 reads
Minimally Viable Security
Today Steve talks about the need for a basic level of security in our software.
2026-01-05
139 reads
SQL Server DBaaS Vulnerability: Decrypting System Code & Exfiltrating User Data
Security in cloud environments is both challenging and fascinating, particularly for Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS) offerings like Amazon RDS, GCP CloudSQL and Alibaba ApsaraDB RDS. The cloud vendor acts as the system administrator, managing the operating system, patching, and backups, while the user manages their data and databases.
2025-12-03
Blogs
T-SQL Tuesday #203: Risk and Reward
By Steve Jones
This is timely, as I’m currently on a boat in the Adriatic taking a...
dataMinds Connect 2026 – Slides & Scripts
You can find the slides and SQL scripts for my session “Spice up your...
How to Clear the SSMS Cache (SSMS 21 and Later)
By SQLPals
How to Clear the SSMS Cache (SSMS 21 and Later) Updated...
Forums
Using CHOOSE()
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Using CHOOSE()
Re-Seeding a Broken Log Shipping Secondary (Without Touching the Primary)
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Re-Seeding a Broken Log Shipping...
The DBA is Dead! Long Live the !
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The DBA is Dead! Long...
Question of the Day
Using CHOOSE()
We have this code that sets some status values and then queries them using the CHOOSE() function in SQL Server 2025.
CREATE TABLE Status
(
StatusID INT,
StatusDescription VARCHAR(20)
);
GO
INSERT dbo.Status
(
StatusID,
StatusDescription
)
VALUES
(0, 'Uncategorized'),
(1, 'Active'),
(2, 'Inactive'),
(3, 'Temp');
GO
SELECT CHOOSE(StatusID, 'Unknown', 'Active', 'Inactive', 'Temporary')
FROM Status;
When the SELECT runs, what is returned? See possible answers