Data Security

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howard - 12 Apr 2005 02:38 GMT

Lots of articles around which address internal security and access approaches
None address the real issue that dbf file formats are pretty well known and
if one
can access (read/write) a dbf then all the info is readily available
external to
whatever controls the programmer might have implemented.

Anybody familiar with an alternative? Suppose one could 'scramble' some of
the
key fields in VFP?

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Mark McCasland - 12 Apr 2005 03:32 GMT

You can use a tool like Cryptor to encrypt fields. You can also roll your
own. I seem to recall a FoxPro Advisor article in the last year or so
covering this topic. No matter what you do though, any user of the app also
has full access rights to where ever your data reside. They amy not can read
the data, but they can sure modify it, delete it, add to it, etc. And a
modified "encrypted" field is now junk. If you have that much need for data
protection, go to SQL Server, Oracle, or in the fall, SQL Server 2005
Express (this is the free version of SQL Server and replacement for MSDE and
SQL Server Dev Edition).

Go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/express/sql for a free download of the beta
and other stuff.

> Lots of articles around which address internal security and access approaches
> None address the real issue that dbf file formats are pretty well known and
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> the
> key fields in VFP?

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