Jim Salter, writing for Ars Technica, details how MonogDB has adopted a burgeoning new encryption method for its popular service. The implications of the new method mean that the data is not only more secure, but that services such as cloud databases could potentially open to new markets with very restrictive confidentiality clauses. While MonogDB isn’t the first to offer this type of encryption, called Field-Level Encryption, it is a major player and the impact it will have should surely shake things up in certain sectors.
Firstly, what is MongoDB? MongoDB is a database noSQL database service that uses cloud infrastructure to handle data for large companies and operations. MongoDB is somewhat of a household name in the tech field. Even though I don’t have any experience with large scale database work, I am well aware of it. MongoDB is used by many companies and agencies, but there is trouble for it when it comes to more highly protected fields such as hospitals. Salter mentions that “HIPAA would have a field day with any vendor who tried to store protected health information in a third-party-managed cloud service” before the introduction of Field-Level Encryption. The safe introduction of services like MongoDB into the healthcare world is of course huge for developers of said software, but should also future proof the infrastructure, helping patients who rely on these services to be fast and functional.
Now, of course, what is Field-Level Encryption? FLE, as it’s called, is a method of encryption where the data is encrypted through the end application, and the encrypted data is store in a database. The important note here, is that when the application then queries the database, the information is sent back encrypted as well. This is the key difference from other levels of encryption. Salter says that “decryption never happens at the server level, and in fact, the server doesn’t have access to the keys necessary to decrypt it”, making the data safe from access from the very necessary but risky use of database administrators. With other methods, Database administrators may be able to see queries unencrypted when they are running diagnostics. FLE removes this entirely, unless the DBA has access to the end application, which complicates things but isn’t as large of a worry. Performance of the software was of course mentioned as a primary concern, and industry standard testing denoted “MongoDB’s performance goal for FLE was a latency impact of 10 percent or less” and “applications that didn’t use encrypted fields didn’t take a hit”.
In the end, MongoDB’s approach to FLE encryption surely will open them up to expansive new markets, but more importantly will fundamentally change how confidential data is queried. The fear of SSN, addresses, and much more leaking out through the use of cloud services is all too real. It has happened before, and while many times the error was on the human side such as forgetting to hide a password, FLE takes the ball out of DBA hand’s, and places it directly into those that handle the data in the first place. While there is always potential that a healthcare worker may violate HIPPA while handling said data, it is certainly better to have to worry about one less factor, especially when it causes such a small hit to performance and is largely scalable. I believe that FLE will be something that is taught in entry level security classes very soon, if it’s not already, as it will likely pick up steam “Just as salted one-way hashing rapidly became the mandatory standard for password storage”, and cement itself as de facto database encryption.
Source Article: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/04/mongodbs-field-level-encryption-protects-private-data-even-from-dbas/
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