Thanks Christof, I had no idea- though I did know that an optimized search can use the index only... guess I never thought about it enough. Scrub that idea, then... ;-)
The big problem I see is that whether you use NET or VFP or Java or ... .. , if a hacker can get the app, they can decompile the code that encrypts and decrypts, including where the key comes from. Even with obfuscation in NET, it's not hard. All you can really do is use Refox/Konxise/Armadillo or similar for VFP and one of the compressing/encrypting obfuscators in NET to dissuade all but the most determined hackers.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
