security question

Greetings.

I'm currently working for a company that has recently become concerned about protecting its intellectual property from its customers. The software product the company produces uses an Oracle database, and the company now wishes to hide the database schema from customers that buy the product.

I've informed my company that I think this request is impossible to implement. Since the "system" user can view all the objects in the database, preventing access to the account that owns the schema is not enough. Access to the "system" user must also be prevented. That would mean that my company would need to provide full database administration services to the customer and prevent the customer from accessing the database (or the computer system on which the database runs) in any way.

Before I stick to my guns on this subject, I want to go to all the Oracle experts out there and find out if my assertions are correct. So, is there any way to prevent the "system" user from viewing the schema of another user?

I have no experience with Trusted Oracle, but I do have a background in computer security. If Trusted Oracle is certifiable at the B2 level, then it can probably do this. Does anyone know that this is true?

• Rich