The encryption - decryption of the column level for a commercial DBMS with supporting user interface

Abstract

The main purpose of the project was to develop an improvement of the database column level encryption implementation. The Small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) need to secure their valuable database from intrusion by unauthorized personnel economically. Nevertheless, they have identified a need for improvement to their database column level encryption, in order to enable a more efficient and simple approach to the maintenance and securing of the data. This project attempts to build an appropriate solution that would enable the System manager to create system users and give them roles. The security manager makes encryption to the column database only, while only the data owner can decrypt the data column. The project also gives a background and a detailed explanation of the Database Access Technologies (DATs) such as ODBC, JDBC, XML and .NET etc.; and how they were used in relation to this project. Emphasis was placed on content management to develop a user friendly Graphical User Interface. Some different software used during this project: Microsoft Windows Vista, SQL Server to host the database and Microsoft.NET (VB.NET) as the front-end. Microsoft.NET (VB.NET) is the middleware used to connect Operating System, Graphical User Interface and SQL Server database. The Secure Column Application is the product of the above mentioned project and it provides high security for MS SQL Server 2005 and presents transparent encryption and decryption with any type of the database table column.