Results 1 to 4 of 4
  1. #1
    tgavin is offline Novice
    Windows 7 Access 2010 (version 14.0)
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Location
    New York
    Posts
    22

    Encrypting a field

    I have an split Access database (mdb) that has just been moved to Access 2010 but kept as an mdb. In the main table there is a field that holds a Social Security Number. The new head of IT is concerned that this field has just been sitting out there on the network (rightly so) and wants to encrypt it. I have no experience with working with it at that level. Can anyone tell me if it is possible in either Access 2003 or Access 2010, mdb or accdb to do this? If so, can you tell me how? The field is not an ID field and only shows up on the form and possibly on a report.

  2. #2
    RuralGuy's Avatar
    RuralGuy is offline Administrator
    Windows 7 64bit Access 2010 32bit
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    8300' in the Colorado Rocky Mountains
    Posts
    12,922
    You may find this link useful: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/821762

  3. #3
    Rawb is offline Expert
    Windows XP Access 2000
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Somewhere
    Posts
    875
    First off, thanks to tgavin for asking the question before me so I have a place to start. And, of course, thanks to RG for the link!

    I'm looking into the feasibility of implementing record-level encryption in an Access Database. I've had some experience with hashing passwords in other database systems/programming languages (mostly hashing strings in a MySQL database in PHP), but never using reversible encryption on data and I've never worked with encryption OR hashing in Access. I'm also not very familiar with implementing outside APIs beyound copy/pasting code into Class Modules.

    Because of my inexperience, I have some questions!

    1. First, just how feasible/practical is it to implement database-wide, reversible, record-level encryption in Access? Is this something that I shouldn't even bother trying?
    2. What kind of performance hit can I expect due to the constant encryption/decryption of data? Is this something that would require a super computer just to run?
    3. How would I implement the API in Access? The content of RG's link describes using VB 6 or VB.Net to create stand-alone applications, but doesn't mention how to set this up in Access using VBA.
    4. I know that, for hashing, it's recommended that it be stored as binary data, is it the same for this type of encryption or am I OK just storing the data as a Text string?


    If it's not practical to do full database encryption in this manner, I could probably get away with only encryption a few key fields, but at least one of those fields would be for attachments, and at least one other would be for large, formatted text strings (i.e. Memo fields).

  4. #4
    RuralGuy's Avatar
    RuralGuy is offline Administrator
    Windows 7 64bit Access 2010 32bit
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    8300' in the Colorado Rocky Mountains
    Posts
    12,922
    I can't give you any 1st hand advice since I've not done this before but I have to believe there will be a performance penalty to pay. The sooner you can get into machine code (API), the faster it should run. Good luck.

Please reply to this thread with any new information or opinions.

Similar Threads

  1. Replies: 1
    Last Post: 03-03-2012, 10:17 PM
  2. Replies: 1
    Last Post: 02-20-2012, 01:59 PM
  3. Encrypting Forms
    By Dallas in forum Forms
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: 05-13-2011, 04:15 PM
  4. encrypting passwords in a SQL statement using c++
    By princess-1 in forum Security
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 10-21-2010, 11:51 AM
  5. Problem with encrypting splitted database
    By skiper in forum Security
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 02-01-2010, 11:06 AM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
Other Forums: Microsoft Office Forums