This is me learning using encrypt/decrypt in SQL Server and doing some testing to know what I can and can't do in some cases.
The case I am about to ask is about when I accidentally drop the symmetric key and no backup has been created or already lost.
I have tried to drop the certificate and master key, and both tests failed because some data are encrypted by them.
When I try to drop the symmetric key, I got no error, and the key was dropped successfully.
I have some data in a column with Column Level Encryption that is encrypted by the key that was dropped.
My question is, does SQL Server really not give out any error though I have data encrypted by the key?
And if for some reason I don't have the key's backup or lost the backup, is there any other way to decrypt the data encrypted by the dropped key, maybe using the certificate or the master key?
Any answer is appreciated.
Thanks.
