Microsoft® SQL Server 2012 Unleashed

Column-Level Encryption Versus Transparent Data Encryption

So is column-level encryption or transparent data encryption the right solution for your systems? Both column-level encryption and transparent data encryption provide a means of obfuscating sensitive data to protect it from unauthorized access. However, they do so in different ways.

TDE prevents the unauthorized access of the contents of the database files and backups but does not protect sensitive data within the database from being viewed by authorized users or database administrators. Column-level encryption provides more granular control over the data being encrypted but is not transparent to your applications.

Table 18.1 lists the similarities and differences between column-level ...