Chapter 35. Securing Sensitive Data
IN BRIEF
This chapter is about data protection. There are countless ways that you can protect your data, using everything from simple homemade techniques of data disguise to full-blown encryption algorithms.
This chapter will show you how to protect your data using the facilities available within the .NET Framework and within the operating system itself. You will see an explanation of the concepts behind secret key encryption, public key encryption, and the Windows Data Protection API (DPAPI). In addition to getting introductions to each of those topics, you will see samples of how to use each type of encryption technology within the .NET Framework so that at the end of the chapter you should be confident in your ability to secure any kind of data for any type of transmission or storage using C#.
WHAT YOU NEED
| REQUIRED SOFTWARE | .NET Framework SDK v1.1 Visual Studio .NET 2003 with C# installed |
| RECOMMENDED HARDWARE | PC that meets .NET SDK minimum requirements |
| SKILLS REQUIRED | C# and .NET familiarity Familiarity with security concepts helpful |
SECURING SENSITIVE DATA AT A GLANCE