When an column is encrypted you can't index the cleartext since it undermine the encryption and if you encrypt it in the application then postgres never had the cleartext. Pgcrypto encrypts at an higher level than the indexer operates, so it sees only the encrypted data.
Comments
Thank you for response.
Correct! My questions perhaps implied one is connected to the other whereas they are completely separate. I could have been clearer.
are you saying that blunt-force encryption of all data-at-rest renders indexes pointless? Could you provide more context here?
Cheers
When an column is encrypted you can't index the cleartext since it undermine the encryption and if you encrypt it in the application then postgres never had the cleartext. Pgcrypto encrypts at an higher level than the indexer operates, so it sees only the encrypted data.