SQLServerCentral Editorial

A Matter of Degree

So we had an interesting debate on college degrees and how much weight to give them in an interview recently. Near the end someone mentioned they were curious what types of degrees people had as well as those the worked with. There were some interesting comments, and I decided that this might make a nice Friday poll.

SQLServerCentral Article

Designing Cross Database Queries

As systems get bigger, servers consolidated, and SQL Server back ends more types of applications, the need for cross database queries for reports, updates, and more will continue to grow. Steve Jones looks at a few ways that you can design your linkages and talks about why he prefers one over the other.

Technical Article

Keep Your Data Secure with the New Advanced Encryption Standard

The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is a National Institute of Standards and Technology specification for the encryption of electronic data. It is expected to become the accepted means of encrypting digital information, including financial, telecommunications, and government data. This article presents an overview of AES and explains the algorithms it uses. Included is a complete C# implementation and examples of encrypting .NET data. After reading this article you will be able to encrypt data using AES, test AES-based software, and use AES encryption in your systems.

SQLServerCentral Editorial

Working with PASS

I joined PASS in 1999 and attended the inaugural Summit in Chicago. It was in the lower level of a hotel just on the river, I went to the last White Sox game of the year, and got to see Kalen Delaney speak about this newly released SQL Server 7.

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Forums

Symmetric Key Encryption

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Symmetric Key Encryption

The “Successful Login” Dilemma: Why Your Login Auditing Strategy Might Be Hurting Your Server

By Pablo Echeverria

Comments posted to this topic are about the item The “Successful Login” Dilemma: Why...

Building Your Own Software

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Building Your Own Software

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Question of the Day

Symmetric Key Encryption

If I run this statement in SQL Server 2025, how is the password encrypted?

CREATE SYMMETRIC KEY MySymmetricKey
WITH ALGORITHM = AES_256,
KEY_SOURCE = 'My secret key source passphrase',
IDENTITY_VALUE = 'My secret identity value'
ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'S&perS#cretP@ssword7';
GO

See possible answers