ADA-C01 Question 156
Single answerManage encryption keys in SnowflakeA financial services company uses Tri-Secret Secure in Snowflake to meet internal key-control requirements. During a planned key-rotation exercise, the cloud security team accidentally disables the customer-managed key in the external key management service for several hours. The Snowflake administrator must determine the operational impact and the best corrective action. Which statement is MOST accurate?
- A
Snowflake will continue to process all queries because only newly loaded data requires the customer-managed key; re-enable the key later with no user impact.
- B
Snowflake access to encrypted data can be interrupted because Tri-Secret Secure requires the customer-managed key in addition to Snowflake-managed keys; the administrator should restore key access in the external KMS/HSM as quickly as possible.
- C
Only stages that use client-side encryption are affected; tables and query results remain fully accessible because Snowflake does not use customer-managed keys for stored data.
- D
The administrator should rotate the Snowflake account master key from SQL immediately, because this is the supported way to recover from a disabled customer-managed key.
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
This question tests practical understanding of customer-managed encryption with Tri-Secret Secure. Snowflake encrypts data at rest by default using its own key hierarchy. With Tri-Secret Secure, a customer-managed key from a supported external key management system is added to strengthen customer control over data access. That extra control also introduces an operational dependency: if the customer-managed key is disabled, deleted, or otherwise unavailable, Snowflake may be unable to access encrypted data, resulting in service disruption. The correct administrative action is therefore to restore access to the external key promptly. This aligns with Snowflake documentation and best practices for Tri-Secret Secure and key management integrations: maintain high availability of the external KMS/HSM, carefully plan key rotation, and tightly control administrative procedures around disabling or retiring keys.
- A. Incorrect.
Incorrect. In Tri-Secret Secure, Snowflake data protection depends on a combination of Snowflake-managed encryption and a customer-managed key integration. Disabling the customer-managed key can affect Snowflake's ability to access protected data, not just newly loaded data. The misconception is that the external key is used only at ingest time; in reality, key availability is required for continued access under Tri-Secret Secure.
- B. Correct.
Correct. Tri-Secret Secure adds a customer-controlled key component through an external key management integration. If that key is disabled or unavailable, access to encrypted data can be disrupted. The appropriate operational response is to restore the key in the external KMS/HSM or otherwise re-establish key availability. This reflects the real-world responsibility tradeoff of customer-controlled encryption: stronger control, but also the risk of service impact if the key is mismanaged.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. This confuses client-side encryption for staged files with Snowflake's platform encryption controls. Tri-Secret Secure is not limited to stages, and the customer-managed key is relevant to Snowflake's encrypted data access model more broadly. Tables and query processing can be affected when the external key becomes unavailable.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Customers cannot directly rotate Snowflake's internal account master encryption keys using SQL as a recovery action for Tri-Secret Secure outages. The issue in this scenario is the disabled customer-managed key in the external key manager, so the supported corrective action is to restore that key's availability rather than attempting to manipulate Snowflake-managed internal keys.