Securing Your Data with Queryable Encryption in MongoDB 6.0.3
Tags: webdev, beginners, database, learning
Published: 2023-01-20 03:37:38

&emsp; Recently, I got a mail from the [MongoDB](https://www.mongodb.com/docs/manual/release-notes/6.0-changelog/#std-label-6.0.3-changelog) team mentioning the **6.0.3** release notes. In the mail, they mentioned **Queryable Encryption,** which quickly attracted my attention. Even though this *preview* version was released on June 7, 2022, I learned about the same only via the mail. As a Fullstack Developer, primarily working with **MERN** (MongoDB, ExpressJS, ReactJS, NodeJS) Stack in most projects, this interests me as this helps protect the data from potential attacks and, as they claim,

> MongoDB is the only database provider that allows customers to run expressive queries, such as equality (available now in preview) and range, prefix, suffix, substring, and more (coming soon) on fully randomized encrypted data.

​&emsp; Hence, I would like to share my views of the same.

### TL; DR <br /><br />

> - **Unlocking Powerful Queries on Encrypted Data**: *Run a range of query expressions like range, equality, prefix, suffix, and more with MongoDB's Queryable Encryption, making it the only database provider that offers this capability.* <br /><br />

> - **Total Data Protection**: *Queryable Encryption protects sensitive data throughout its lifecycle, from transit to storage, with added server-side randomized encryption for added security.* <br /><br />
> - **Meeting Strict Data Privacy Standards:** *Queryable Encryption enables compliance with strict data privacy regulations such as HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA, etc., through strong technical controls like client-side encryption/decryption and key management for complete control over data confidentiality and integrity.* <br /><br />
> - **Efficient Application Development:** *Queryable Encryption simplifies data protection for developers with built-in, standard-based cryptography and key management, eliminating the need for a separate SDK and supporting popular MongoDB drivers.* <br /><br />
> - **Lowering Institutional Risk:** *Queryable Encryption in MongoDB Atlas allows for secure storage of sensitive data in the cloud with rich querying capabilities on fully randomized encrypted data, reducing institutional risk.* <br />

## Intro

&emsp; With the increasing number of data breaches and cyber-attacks, securing sensitive data has become a top priority for organizations of all sizes. MongoDB 6.0.3 offers a powerful new feature to help organizations protect their data: **Queryable Encryption.** In this post, we'll take a closer look at **Queryable Encryption** and how it can help organizations secure their data stored in MongoDB.

### What is Queryable Encryption?

&emsp; Queryable Encryption is a feature that allows for the encryption of data stored in MongoDB while still allowing for the execution of queries on that data. This means that data is encrypted using a specific encryption key, and the encrypted data is stored in the database. When a query is executed, the query is executed against the encrypted data, and the results are returned in an encrypted format. This allows organizations to maintain the confidentiality of their data while still performing meaningful analysis and gaining insights from it.

### Why do we need Queryable Encryption in the first place?

&emsp; Before the introduction of Queryable Encryption, organizations faced several challenges regarding protecting sensitive data. One of the main issues was that traditional encryption methods made it difficult or impossible to query or search encrypted data. This meant that organizations had to trade between the security of their data and their ability to access and use it.

&emsp; Another issue was that traditional encryption methods did not provide enough control over the encryption keys, increasing the risk of data breaches. And often, implementing the encryption required expertise in cryptography and a separate SDK, which made it difficult for developers to protect data properly.

&emsp; Additionally, due to the large amount of data generated and stored, it's become increasingly important to store data in the cloud, but this can raise concerns about the security of the data.

### How does Queryable Encryption address the issues?

&emsp; **Queryable Encryption** addresses the issues faced before its introduction by allowing for data encryption so that it can still be queried, searched, and indexed without compromising the security of the data. It achieves this by using standard-based cryptography and strong key management, which eliminates the need for a separate SDK and allows developers to protect data without needing to be experts in cryptography.

&emsp; Queryable Encryption also provides added layers of security, such as client-side encryption/decryption and key management, which gives organizations complete control over their data's confidentiality and integrity and enables them to comply with strict data privacy regulations.

&emsp; Organizations can store sensitive data in the cloud without worrying about security using Queryable Encryption with MongoDB Atlas. This feature allows organizations to maintain control over their data, perform rich, expressive querying capabilities on fully randomized encrypted data and reduce institutional risk.

&emsp; Additionally, the built-in encryption solution supports popular MongoDB drivers, making it easy for developers to implement.

### Benefits of Queryable Encryption

- **Compliance and regulatory standards:** *Queryable Encryption enables organizations to meet compliance requirements and regulatory standards, such as HIPAA or PCI-DSS, that mandate the encryption of sensitive data.*
- **Protection against data breaches and unauthorized access:** *Queryable Encryption can also protect against data breaches and unauthorized access to the data, ensuring that sensitive information is protected at rest and in transit.*
- **Continued use of existing tools and workflows:** *Queryable Encryption allows organizations to continue using their existing tools and workflows for data analysis without making any changes to their existing infrastructure.*

### Use Case Scenario

&emsp; Let’s understand better with a real-life use case: **Queryable Encryption** in MongoDB could be a healthcare application that stores and processes sensitive patient information, such as personal identification numbers, medical history, and treatment plans. The application may need to comply with regulations such as **HIPAA**, which require that sensitive patient information be protected from unauthorized access.

&emsp; Without *Queryable Encryption*, the healthcare application would need to store patient information in plaintext, making it vulnerable to data breaches. With  Queryable Encryption, sensitive information can be encrypted at rest, making it much more difficult for unauthorized parties to access the data. The healthcare application can use MongoDB's built-in queryable encryption feature to encrypt the patient information using a key management system, such as **AWS** **Key Management Service** (**KMS**) or **Azure** **Key Vault**.

&emsp; This encryption allows the healthcare application to perform queries on the encrypted data, such as searching for patients with specific medical conditions or treatment plans, without having to decrypt the data first. This provides an additional layer of security, as sensitive patient information is not exposed during the query process.

### Tradeoffs

> _Even though **Queryable Encryption** sounds fascinating and has a decisive advantage, it does have some tradeoffs to be kept in mind while trying to implement the same._

&emsp; One issue is that encryption can introduce performance overhead, as the data needs to be encrypted and decrypted when it is read from or written to the database. This may result in slower query performance, especially for large datasets. Encryption can also introduce complexity to the application, as the application needs to handle the encryption and decryption of data and the management of encryption keys.

&emsp; Another potential issue is the difficulty in querying the encrypted data directly. Since the data is encrypted, traditional queries will not work on the encrypted data, so the application needs to be able to handle the encryption and decryption of the data on-the-fly, to be able to query the data. This can add complexity to the application and may also impact performance.

## Conclusion

&emsp; In summary, Queryable encryption in MongoDB provides a secure solution for storing and processing sensitive data while maintaining compliance with regulations. This feature allows for data encryption at rest and the execution of queries on the encrypted data without the need for decryption, thereby providing an additional layer of security.

&emsp; However, it should be noted that the implementation of this feature may introduce performance and complexity considerations

> For a technical deep dive, refer to [MongoDB Releases Queryable Encryption Preview | MongoDB](https://www.mongodb.com/blog/post/mongodb-releases-queryable-encryption-preview?utm_campaign=Int_EM_Get Ready For Mongodb 6 On Your M0%2FM2%2FM5 Atlas Cluster_01_23_WW&utm_medium=email&utm_source=eloqua&utm_term=Get ready for MongoDB 6.0 on your M0%2FM2%2FM5 Atlas cluster).