Encryption

As the need to protect sensitive information grows, organizations globally are placing increased emphasis on data security. In the realm of database management, encryption plays a vital role in ensuring the integrity and confidentiality of stored and in-transit data. This chapter delves into the details of data encryption in MongoDB and discusses how it's become an essential component in pursuit of compliance with various regulations and security standards.

With data privacy regulations becoming more stringent, organizations are mandated to adhere to strict security standards, including data encryption. Prominent among the regulations that necessitate the implementation of encryption include General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by the European Union, which aims to protect the privacy of European citizens; the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the United States, governing data security in the healthcare sector; and the Payment Card...

Encryption types

MongoDB offers robust data encryption features to safeguard your data. Here's a summary of three encryption methods, that'll be explored in more detail later in this chapter:

• Encryption in-transit: Encryption in-transit protects data during transmission between MongoDB clients and servers. This is achieved using the Transport Layer Security/Secure Sockets Layer/ (TLS/SSL) protocol, which encrypts data before it's sent over the network.
• Client-Side Field Level Encryption: This method allows the encryption of individual data fields within a MongoDB document. It protects highly sensitive data at a granular level, where only specific parts of documents are encrypted while the rest remain accessible.
• Encryption at rest: This method of encryption protects data when it's stored on a disk. Data is automatically encrypted at the file level, ensuring that even if someone gains physical access to the disk, the data remains secure.

Certificates...

Encryption in-transit

Ensuring secure data communication over networks is paramount, particularly when it comes to databases such as MongoDB. In the following sections, you will learn about the fundamentals of encryption in-transit and explore the intricacies of configuring MongoDB for enhanced database communication security.

How it works

Transport encryption protects MongoDB by encrypting all network traffic, meaning that a packet transmitted using TLS/SSL can only be read by the end client. As you saw in the LDAP section of Chapter 15, Security, this type of encryption ensures that no malicious attackers can read a message in-transit.

Network encryption should be used whenever possible. In MongoDB Atlas, network encryption is enabled by default and cannot be disabled. For on-premises clusters, you may choose to implement TLS/SSL, or it can be optional for clients to connect to the cluster:

• requireTLS: The client must use TLS
• preferTLS: The client can use TLS...

Encryption at rest

This feature is only available on MongoDB Enterprise Advanced or MongoDB Atlas (M10 and above). Encryption at rest allows you to encrypt data on storage devices, such as disks, arrays, etc. In contrast to encryption in-transit, which protects data while it is being transmitted between the client and the server, encryption at rest protects data directly on physical storage. This means that if your hardware is stolen or disks are compromised, the data remains protected.

MongoDB uses the AES-256 encryption algorithm to encrypt data. AES-256 is a strong encryption algorithm which is difficult to crack and is used in a wide variety of compliance standards. This algorithm uses a symmetric key, that is, the same key to encrypt and decrypt data.

Encryption at rest in MongoDB

MongoDB offers various options for implementing encryption at rest:

• Transparent data encryption (TDE): MongoDB Enterprise provides transparent encryption of data at rest, meaning encryption...

Client-side encryption

While most modern database management systems offer robust security mechanisms to protect data at rest and in-transit, few have managed to address the need to protect data at the granular level of the field within a record. This is the gap that MongoDB seeks to fill with Client-Side Field Level Encryption (CSFLE).

CSFLE represents a sophisticated approach to security, allowing applications to encrypt specific document fields in a collection before sending that data to MongoDB. With this technique, the encryption and decryption processes take place exclusively on the client side, ensuring that the database server never has access to clear text data. Sensitive data is not only stored securely, but also handled and processed with the highest degree of protection. Thus, even in a hypothetical scenario of a total database compromise, even though an attacker could obtain encrypted data from sensitive fields, they would not have the keys or the necessary context...

Summary

MongoDB offers a robust range of encryption features to ensure data security at rest, in-transit, and even on the client side. These features are essential for compliance with regulatory standards and safeguarding sensitive information. By combining these capabilities, you can establish a robust security framework, protecting sensitive data from external threats, and meeting regulatory standards.

The beauty of MongoDB is its ability to adapt and evolve. Learning its fundamentals is not just a technical task, but an experience that transforms the way you view data storage and retrieval.