Question Security

[Navyguy]

Hello everybody

Just a quick question about security…

I have a DB that is FE/BE split with the FE being “visible” and the BE “hidden” in a directory on the server. Access is controlled via the network permissions, etc. Everything is pretty standard; nothing special has worked great for years… I have a situation that has come up where somebody has copied the BE of the BD now and is apparently using it locally. Not withstanding the whole data issue, is there an easy way of eliminating this from happening again (copying the database(s)) without evoking the full access .mdw security issue?

There is nothing about “copying” in the network properties. This may be more of a network question then an access question, but I thought I would ask here first, not even sure what to search for to look for an answer...hmmm

Cheers

 

[NigelShaw]

Hi,

cant you build into your db the path of the BE part of the db. so when the db is opened, it looks at the path and uses that BE only. if the local db path doesnt match the correct db path then either close or soemthing else?

NS

 

[georgedwilkinson]

It's amazing the tricky ways people find to screw up your system, huh?

You could hide all the tables in the BE, create a startup form in the BE that closes it if they don't do the right key combinations, name all the tables in the BE useless names, encrypt all the data in the BE so it is useless without the FE.

All these things take money and time and it is questionable whether most of them are worth it. Best thing is to tell people to keep their hands off and have management enforce it (log all openings of the BE to e-mail or a file).

 

[Banana]

It's amazing the tricky ways people find to screw up your system, huh?

You could hide all the tables in the BE, create a startup form in the BE that closes it if they don't do the right key combinations, name all the tables in the BE useless names, encrypt all the data in the BE so it is useless without the FE.

All these things take money and time and it is questionable whether most of them are worth it. Best thing is to tell people to keep their hands off and have management enforce it (log all openings of the BE to e-mail or a file).

Just a FYI: It may still be accessible in plain text (if a little hard to read) without triggering the security mechanism at all.

And for fun, when it starts up, pop up a message box with the message:

"The user is not in sudoer list. The incident will be reported."

 

[Navyguy]

Thank you for your feedbacks so far. Not really sure what I will do about this...if anything. I may just end up locking it down for future although I do like the "snotty message" approach even if it is not functional.

Cheers

 

[georgedwilkinson]

Since we posted our replies to this, NigelShaw posted an interesting idea in another thread here: http://www.access-programmers.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=734973#post734973

Not sure if it will help but it could be another tool to use.