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From:William Newton Date:October 26 2007 9:22pm
Subject:Re: How to encrypt Text and still be able to use full text search? 3rd Attempt ++
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If you are going to rely on obfuscation to protect valuable data, you might want to
consider not posting the particular method you will use on a public mailing list. 

I think any method you implement will lower the overall security of the system. But, if
you must search for encrypted text, you could have another representation of the text
salted and hashed word for word. Then salt and hash each search word and search for it in
the hashed text. You're still leaking information about word popularity if you do this
which may help a determined attacker.

----- Original Message ----
From: Baron Schwartz <baron@stripped>
To: mos <mos99@stripped>
Cc: mysql@stripped
Sent: Friday, October 26, 2007 3:54:11 PM
Subject: Re: How to encrypt Text and still be able to use full text  search? 3rd Attempt
++


> I also need to protect a couple dozen Float fields and thought I
 could 
> obscure them a bit by adding an offset to them based on an encrypted
 id 
> stored with each row. It is not going to be as good as encryption but
 
> will help to obfuscate the data.

How much will obfuscation save you?  Are you saving nickels and dimes
 to 
protect millions of dollars?  I've seen people get burned by rolling 
their own encryption (I could tell you a great war story about a 
consultant I worked with who invented "encryption" for SSNs in a
 database).

An insurance policy is something else to consider.  Heck, buy the 
insurance and do weak obfuscation, then get the insurance money and go 
to Mexico.  "... I could put strychnine in the guacamole..."

Baron

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Thread
How to encrypt Text and still be able to use full text search?3rd Attempt ++mos26 Oct
  • Re: How to encrypt Text and still be able to use full text search? 3rd Attempt ++Ian26 Oct
    • Re: How to encrypt Text and still be able to use full textsearch? 3rd Attempt ++mos26 Oct
      • Re: How to encrypt Text and still be able to use full text search?3rd Attempt ++mysql26 Oct
        • Re: How to encrypt Text and still be able to use full text search?3rd Attempt ++Baron Schwartz26 Oct
          • Re: How to encrypt Text and still be able to use full text search? 3rd Attempt ++Rob Wultsch26 Oct
            • Re: How to encrypt Text and still be able to use full textsearch? 3rd Attempt ++mos26 Oct
              • Re: How to encrypt Text and still be able to use full text search?3rd Attempt ++Baron Schwartz26 Oct
          • Re: How to encrypt Text and still be able to use full text search? 3rd Attempt ++mos26 Oct
  • Re: How to encrypt Text and still be able to use full text search?3rd Attempt ++Jan Kirchhoff27 Oct
Re: How to encrypt Text and still be able to use full text search? 3rd Attempt ++William Newton26 Oct