November 2015

Create a Whitelist for SQL Server

UPDATED – May 16, 2017 – Please review the updated code here. In my previous post, Configuring the Azure SQL Database Firewall, I discussed how you can configure the firewall rules to manage access to the SQL Server. Today, I wanted to demonstrate how you can accomplish the same thing with your on-premise SQL Servers by creating a whitelist. So let’s start off by defining “whitelist”. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, it is “a list of people or organizations that have been approved to receive special considerations”. In our example, that “special consideration” is access to the SQL Server only if...

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Configuring the Azure SQL Database Firewall

Azure SQL Database is a Platform as a Service (PaaS) that provides a relational database for use over the internet. That sounds super cool and easy to use. But wait, there’s one word I’d like to highlight in that first sentence: “internet”. Anyone with an internet connection could access your database. Now that’s no cool. So how does Microsoft keep your database safe? The answer is a multipronged approach of using encryption, authentication, authorization, and firewalls. All connections to Azure SQL Database use SSL/TLS to protect your data while “in transit”, and you can use Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) to...

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