Are there inherent or 3rd-party tools for encrypting data in Oracle?

[Quoted] Hello, all!

[Quoted] [Quoted] Please forgive my extensive cross-posting, but I wasn't certain what forum [Quoted] [Quoted] to post my question. This is my first visit to these groups, but I hope to [Quoted] [Quoted] become a "regular" (and better determine where to place my posts in the future ;-).

[Quoted] [Quoted] My background in databases has been largely limited to Microsoft SQL Server, [Quoted] but I have started a new job with a company that uses Oracle 8i on Red Hat [Quoted] [Quoted] Linux 6.2. As such, I'm trying to learn as much as I can about Oracle using [Quoted] my knowledge of SQL Server as sort of a starting point. ;-)

[Quoted] [Quoted] I have been tasked to investigate the feasibility of encrypting data in [Quoted] Oracle. Are there any tools (off-the-shelf or internal to Oracle) that [Quoted] might help to accomplish this? We use JDBC as our data access mechanism, so [Quoted] we would prefer to NOT have to change the application, but to arrange for [Quoted] [Quoted] the data to be encrypted between the Client Library (JDBC in our application) and the Oracle server (we want the data across the wire to be [Quoted] encrypted AND the data on the disk to be encrypted).

[Quoted] [Quoted] Also, I would appreciate any thoughts as to the pros/cons of this approach. [Quoted] My natural inclination is to NOT encrypt the data in the database, but [Quoted] [Quoted] rather to rely on the security safeguards that are in place with the operating system and the database server. It seems to me that it would be [Quoted] difficult to perform OLAP tasks or determine data patterns on data that's [Quoted] encrypted (even partially), not to mention the performance ramifications of [Quoted] [Quoted] said. However, our "hands may be tied", as this is a client imperative. [Quoted] But, I'm hopeful that with some compelling evidence (one way or another), [Quoted] they might change their stance accordingly.

[Quoted] [Quoted] Thank you in advance for your time! :-)

John Peterson Received on Fri Feb 23 2001 - 05:09:06 CET