"Transparent data encryption" - to who, and what's the benefits?
I read about "Transparent data encryption" topic in a internet web site a little.
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Transparent data encryption encrypts data in one or more database table columns, or it can encrypt an entire tablespace. Transparent data encryption is the quickest and easiest way to encrypt data.
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Can you say when such technology/solution could be useful?
I understand that if user accesses encrypted data with simple SELECT-clause then data is decrypted automatically behind the scenes and user sees not encrypted data in his query results. If user would access data with any IDE/Tool then it would also display the data decrypted. So whoever has access to encrypted data can easily see the data decrypted. So i don't see much reasons what applications would need such feature.
I only see one area- the user cannot steal so easily the whole encrypted data file because because he wouldn't get decrypted data. He would need encryption key. Import utility would give him encrypted data. But still, if he manage to connect and execute SELECT-query then data will be decrypted and he can zip this decrypted data up and go away with it. So i don't really understand when one would need such encryption solution. It doesn't secure much as i understand. Can you explain who would need such technology? Maybe it is just marketing thing, that one could sell the solution better to a Goverment institution by saying that the data is secured in a way or so which normal/general databases don't do, so you gonna get a good more secured solution.
This is a database related question, i hope to get some answers, thx.