SQL Azure has two types of access control: SQL Authentication and a server-side firewall that restricts access by IP address. Along with access control SQL Azure always maintains a secure connection to your database via SQL Server’s protocol encryption. Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) is not supported by this release of SQL Azure, you can implement custom encryptions on the application level.
SQL Azure only supports the tabular data stream (TDS) protocol, which is accessible via port 1433 and via the TCP connections. For more information on SQL Azure data access, see SQL Azure Firewall.
SQL Azure firewall lets you allow or prevent connections from various sources to specific IP addresses or ranges. The SQL Azure firewall can be managed via Database Manager or directly in the master database with the provided stored procedures. For more information, see SQL Azure Firewall.
As with any implementation of SQL Server, user account management must be tightly controlled. SQL Azure database only supports SQL Server authentication. User accounts with strong passwords and configured with specific rights should be used as well to complement your data security model. For more information, see SQL Azure SQL Authentication.
SQL Azure only supports encrypted connections. All communication between SQL Azure and client applications/tools require SSL. For more information, see SQL Azure Connection Encryption. In addition, take a look at the SQL Azure Connection Security article to learn more about how to secure connection strings and the best security practices when working with SQL Azure.
Because SQL Azure supports TDS, this means you can for the most part connect and interact with the database just like you have always done. Taking advantage of ADO.NET encryption and trusted server certificates is definitely worth considering, especially when accessing your SQL Azure database from outside the cloud.