Mad Hacker (11/3/2009)
While reaing this article I was reminded of an old episode of 60 Minutes on CBS where they were interviewing a professional car thief. When the thief was asked by the interviewer how he could avoid getting his fancy car stolen, he replied "don't buy it" and further stated that all he had to do to steal the vehicle was use a fork lift to set it on the back of a flatbed truck and drive off.Even with all of the data protection tools available in today's world, if someone wants the data bad enough and they are persistent, in many cases they will find a creative way to obtain it.
But to carry the analogy further, imagine an encrypted database is a car where the doors, hood, and trunk are all welded shut and the undercarriage is covered by a large metal plate also welded on. Decryption is the "magic" that can cleanly remove the weld, but it makes the luxury car pretty useless for the thief if he has to destroy it to open it.
Gaby________________________________________________________________"In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not." - Albert Einstein