Contents
What fields should be encrypted?
Examples of fields that can be encrypted are credit card numbers, social security numbers, bank account numbers, health-related information, wages and financial data. Once a field is chosen, all the data in that field will automatically be encrypted.
Should I encrypt database fields?
Encrypting the data in the database will protect the information if the database is somehow stolen. But, it won’t do anything to protect against the website being attacked. For example by guessing a username/password.
Is it possible to encrypt all fields in MySQL?
If you performed each of the steps above correctly (and assuming your code works ) then you should have a database whereby each field, within each table, excluding key columns, will have its data encrypted! Great! Now – How do I decrypt my encrypted data?
Is it generally a bad idea to encrypt database fields?
Encrypting the data in the database will protect the information if the database is somehow stolen. But, it wont do anything to protect against the website being attacked. For example by guessing a username / password. It might slow someone down if they have compromised the server becuase they have to find the key but it wont stop them.
Do you have to encrypt all your data?
Typically only sensitive data must be encrypted (credit cart numbers, passwords, SSNs, etc), but in some industries, such as with fintech, all of the data must be encrypted. For the purposes of this page, “all data” will mean “all sensitive data”, and at it’s broadest scope, means all data except for any primary or foreign key fields.
What does it mean to encrypt a database?
Encrypting a database is the process of converting the plain text and text-readable data within a database, into a non-readable hashed text by means an [encryption] algorithm. Normally, when a user browses data within a database, the data (depending on the column type) is text readable.