Access Data Encryption Seminar 
Make the data in your tables unreadable
 

In my Access Security Seminar, I teach you everything you need to know to lock down and secure your Access front-end database. You can set up users and groups, control who has access to what forms and reports, keep a log tracking activity, and lock down your database design so nobody can make changes or see your VBA code.

The problem is that your back-end database file (your tables) has to remain open and exposed. Anybody who knows Access can find it and poke around in your data. Unless you have a database server (like SQL Server or Oracle) on your network, you have no other way of locking down your data. Anybody who knows Access can see anything. Not good.

In this seminar, I teach you how to hide your data by encrypting it. If anybody happens to find your Access tables, all they will see is unreadable gibberish. Meanwhile, the database will seamlessly translate that gibberish into real data for the users of your database who have access to view and edit it.

Oh, and as a side note, you can also use this technique to send encrypted emails to people too. I cover sending emails in my Access 329 and Security Seminar classes.

Learn More... Click on the video image to the right to learn more about exactly what's covered in this seminar. The video is about 4 minutes long and fully explains everything that's discussed. Then, continue reading the course outline below if you have further questions.
	4 minutes

This seminar has several goals. You will:

1. Learn how to scramble data in your tables to hide sensitive information
2. Convert text characters to their ASCII equivalent values and back
3. Perform mathematical obfuscation on your data
4. Control access to the form that handles the encryption / decryption
 

We will begin by building a simple customer table that will hold all of our information. The public information (name, address, etc.) that doesn't need to be encrypted will just have a single field. The private data (credit limit, notes, etc.) will have an extra field for the encrypted value.

We'll set up a public customer form - again with just the data that everyone can see (in this case, just the customer's name). We'll make a button to open a private form that has the secret data. Now, I show you how to control WHO can gain access to these records inside the database in my Security Seminar. In that Seminar you learn how to set up user and group accounts, and control who can see what forms, reports, and data.

Then we'll build a second form to show the private data. There will be VBA code that runs when the form opens that decrypts (unscrambles) any hidden data (in this case, the credit limit and notes). Then when the user clicks the "Save & Close" button, those fields are encrypted again and the data saved to the table. I'll show you how to lock this form down so the user MUST click on your Save button to close it, which runs your code.

Now if anyone happens to come across your back-end database file that contains your tables, all they will see is gibberish in the table itself. The actual data has been wiped, and they see garbage.

This solution isn't perfect. Someone can still erase or edit your data. That's one of the problems with Microsoft Access... the back-end tables aren't secure. This solution, however, will allow you the best possible means for keeping people from viewing sensitive data in your database without having an actual database server. Of course, if you have any questions about whether or not this seminar is for you, please contact me.
 

Access Data Encryption Seminar - Outline

00. Intro (5:02)

01. Lesson 1 (9:06)
Set up the database
Set up customer table with encryption fields
Create customer form for public data
Create customer form for encrypted data

02. Lesson 2 (9:37)
Button to open encrypted form
Encrypt Function
Creating a public function in a module
ASCII values & table
ASC() Function
For Next Loop
Mid() Function

03. Lesson 3 (9:41)
Convert Integers to String Values
CStr() Function
Len() Function
Const Keyword to create Constants
Key Values to Mathematically Obfuscate Data

04. Lesson 4 (9:40)
Convert String Values to Integers
CInt Function
Converting ASCII Values to Characters
CHR() Function
Convert to Currency Values
CCur() Function
MsgBox Command
Global Constants

05. Lesson 5 (7:59)
Decrypt Function
Reversing the Encryption Procedure
For Next Step
Deleting actual data from the table

06. Lesson 6 (7:58)
Save & Close Button
&& to get one &
DoCmd.Close Command
Decrypt the data when the form loads
OnCurrent Event
Hide the Encrypted Fields
Visible Property
Control how users can close the form
Only allow closing form with your button
Form Properties
Navigation Buttons
Record Selectors
Scrollbars
Control Box
Close Button
Max Min Buttons
Pop Up
Modal