AW: Performance of encrypted db?

[Ivan Smahin]

Hello Bart,

Tuesday, October 7, 2008, 3:55:56 PM, you wrote:

> Hi Tiemo,



> On 07 Oct 2008, at 14:46, Tiemo Hollmann TB wrote:

>> Hi Bart,
>> my thought was if "Encryption of the structure allows you to deny  
>> opening of
>> your database files" I can't read the datas too, or am I wrong here?

> I think so:
> it may be dependent of the way you setup your database (one file or  
> (at the most) 4 files (vdb,dat,blob, ind)
> If you use the 'more' file format only the vdb file will be encrypted
> with kStructureOnly leaving the data part wide open

> if you use the one file format I wouldn't trust the data being  
> protected (when hacking the file), but we better ask the Highest  
> Authority (Ruslan)

Actually there is no difference what the database mode you choose. In
case of structure encryption - the only schema is encrypted - so you
are not able to open database with wrong key legally. Also - if you
try to read the database file you could not get the system data
because you have to know how it is stored first and second - it is
encrypted now.

Data encryption is about every data encryption except the system one.
Assume you have some data stored in the field String(200). Looking into
the db files you can find it there as almost plain text. Sure, it could be
fragment of the actual data (Text or varChar field), moreover it is hard
to say which record the data belongs to.
But in some cases even this situation is critical. So if you want to
secure your data completely you should consider data encryption for
the database or particular tables.


> NO need for. As I remember it worked pretty well (I was using it for  
> local databases, not server)

Encryption is supported for both - Local and Server modes. There is
no additional overhead in this meaning.

-- 
Best regards,
Ivan Smahin 
Senior Software Engineer
Paradigma Software, Inc
Valentina - The Ultra-Fast Database
http://www.valentina-db.com