Microsoft® SQL Server 2012 Unleashed

Controlling Access to Data

Views can be used as a security mechanism to limit a user’s access to specific data. This type of view security can be used to limit the columns or the rows that the user has access to. A view that limits the accessible columns can be referred to as vertical security, or column-level security. A view that restricts the rows that are returned is referred to as horizontal security, or row-level security.

With vertical security, a view is created that contains only the data elements or columns that you want to make visible. Columns that are sensitive in nature (for example, payroll data) can be excluded from a view so that they are not seen when the user selects from the view.

After the view is created, security can be ...