[AccessD] Data Encryption

Pete,
I have a similar system.  Following a comment from John Colby re TrueCrypt,
I downloaded and installed it plus the following:
TrueCrypt
cGeep
ZipGenius

TRUECRYPT (Free)
The BE and FE's are encrypted using TrueCrypt and can only be seen when
Mounted as a Drive.  The encryption key (passphrase) can be any length you
want - the longer the better for security, the shorter the better for ease
of use - your choice.  We mount them to Drive Z and it works a dream.  When
UnMounted they appear as a garbled file. You need to determine beforehand
what size you want the encrypted file to be as this will determine how much
data you can put into it.  One it is Mounted it will appear as a normal
windows drive and you can drag-n-drop, copy, paste etc etc as you would be
able to for any other drive.  When doing backups and offsite copies, you
only need to copy the encrypted file which mean that even if the get stolen
or compromised the code is still encrypted.  Once a PC/Laptop is turn off,
it automatically disMounts the Drive.  The Pro version (cheap) will allow
you to do other things.  Not only is the BE encrypted until Mounted, but the
mdb is itself also password protected.  Each night various routines are run
to generate web sites, compress/compact etc.  The Server then reboots (which
dismounts the Drives) and on booting, auto-loads the program to Mount the
Drives and sits there waiting for somebody with the passphrase to key it in.
Then they are Mounted.  People then switch on their PCs and a batch file
copies over the latest FE mdb from the Server which only take a few secs
over 1Gb net.  This means they always have the latest copy.  It all works
seamlessly and easily. The only thing you need to do once it is set up is to
remember the passphrase.

cGeep (Free)
We use this for transmitting personal data and files (eg. Spreadsheet)
between staff/branches etc.  It is based on PGP and excellent.  Any
attachments are also encrypted.  Only users with a matching key can decrypt
the email/attachments.  The Pro version (cheap) will allow you to do other
things.

ZipGenius (Free)
We use this to compress files before transmitting them using cGeep.

The three packages above have been in use now for some months and have
behaved faultless (fingers crossed, knock on wood, etc) and I can definitely
recommend this approach.

Max



-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Pete Phillipps
Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2008 3:00 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: [AccessD] Data Encryption

Hi Everyone,

	I'm due to start work on creating a database in a couple of weeks
amd in view of the recent UK government record on losing data it has made me
thing about data encryption. Does anyone have any advice/code on encrypting
data in an Access 2003 back-end that would be accessed via an Access 2003
front end and via ASP/ASP. NET?

Pete

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