>How safe is a FoxPro system (desktop) that uses an SQL database at a remote site through ODBC over the Internet?
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>Can data be intercepted and easily read by unauthorized people?
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>I know the truth is that there I so much data going over the Internet that there is safety just in the fact that no one would bother to try to trap MY data. However Clients always think that some criminal will spend thousands of dollars to find out who my Client sold their last case of toilet paper to. NOT Likely, but possible.
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>How safe is SQL data?
As usual, the answer is "it depends".
Before the remote client can communicate with the SQL server (via an ODBC connection), first a network connection has to be established. Often, this is done by creating a "virtual private network" (VPN - see Wikipedia for an overview). If your network people have set up a VPN between the two endpoints then any traffic carried through that VPN is transparently encrypted/decrypted with pretty good algorithms, so you don't need to worry about anyone in the middle sniffing the data stream.
Come to think of it, just about all modern technologies used to establish persistent connections through the Internet are very security-conscious so it's actually unlikely that a non-encrypting technology is being used. Nevertheless, it's a good question and one well worth asking of your network people.
Regards. Al
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