Encrypting Sensitive Data in Spring Boot: AES-256-GCM Explained with a Real-World Example

When building an insurance application, we often store sensitive information such as a driver's date of birth (DOB), driver's license number, phone number, and other personally identifiable information (PII). But what happens if someone gets access to our database? Database authentication and access control are important, but they do not necessarily protect data from someone who obtains a database dump or gains unauthorized direct database access. One way to add another layer of protection is