KnowHow

Cryptographic protection of databases, mailinglists, members

A straightforward protection scheme: One-way hash function with symmetric encryption.

One-way hash function with a symmetric encryption algorithim

1. Encrypt the index field with a one-way hash function
2. Use the value of step 1 as the cipher key to encrypt the data fields.

Symmetric encryption algorithim - the same cipher key is used to encrypt and decrypt data

Searching the database

Look for the hashed value in the index field of the database and for each matching entry decrypt the data fields using the index field as the cipher key.