Re: storing SSNs, CCNs, password in the DB

["Francesco" <francesco () blackcoil com>]

It's for a web-based financial application (users accessing credit-card
transaction information, signing in with their card number, PIN and last
4 of SSN) so we pretty much *have* to have that information in the DB to
compare at logon.

Francesco



On Sun, 27 Feb 2005 20:28:20 -0500, "Adam Shostack" <adam () homeport org>
said:
> So, this will sound like pedantry, but it's worth starting from:  The
> most secure way is to not store them.  Use them for what you need, and
> then throw them away.  With increasing numbers of laws coming into
> effect if you store these sorts of data, it may be worth business
> process analysis to see if you can discard data early.
>
> If you don't have an SSN, you can't decide that it would make a good
> password.  (You also can't report on tax issues.)
>
> Adam
>
> On Sun, Feb 27, 2005 at 02:32:12PM -0800, Francesco wrote:
> | What is the most secure way to store SSNs, CCNs, and passwords in the
> | DB?
> | 
> | Is this a good general policy?
> | 
> | 1. If you need to be able to read the data back, the encrypt/decrypt
> | with something like TDES, storing the keys in the registry.
> | 
> | 2. If you don't need to read the data back and you just need to
> compare,
> | then hash/salt with SHA1, storing the hash and salt in the DB.
> | 
> | Francesco