Access 97 Questions

[Tom]

Hi, we have a medication dispensing application built on Access97. Is there
any way to modify the labels to include a barcode of the patients; name and
social security numbers and\or adding a field to the label?

Thanks,

Tom

 

[Tom]

Hi, we have a medication dispensing application built on Access97. Is
there any way to modify the labels to include a barcode of the patients;
name and social security numbers and\or adding a field to the label?

Thanks,

Tom

Where else should I post this question?

 

[Arvin Meyer [MVP]]

This is the place to post.

I wrote an app to use barcodes with membership cards at the local computer
club. We use a barcode font and concatenate the control characters to the
beginning and end of the barcode. It works in all versions since Access 2.0.
Here's a site with lots of info on barcodes and Access:

http://www.adams1.com/pub/russadam/share.html

Assuming that you have the rights to make changes, you should be fine. A
note of caution though. Do not store SSNs unless you are required to.
Personal information requires the utmost security measures, and no one
should be able to take data home on a laptop. It would be better to store
that type of information on a SQL-Server back-end to more adequately protect
against data loss due to hackers.

 

[Brendan Reynolds]

Assuming that you have the rights to make changes, you should be fine. A
note of caution though. Do not store SSNs unless you are required to.
Personal information requires the utmost security measures, and no one
should be able to take data home on a laptop. It would be better to store
that type of information on a SQL-Server back-end to more adequately
protect against data loss due to hackers.

There have been a number of highly-publicized cases here recently of laptops
containing sensitive medical and financial data being stolen, mostly from
parked cars. Apparently, bank and insurance company employees have been
carrying laptops around containing this sensitive data in unencrypted form.
Let's hope the lessons have been learned.

 

[Arvin Meyer [MVP]]

There have been a number of highly-publicized cases here recently of
laptops containing sensitive medical and financial data being stolen,
mostly from parked cars. Apparently, bank and insurance company employees
have been carrying laptops around containing this sensitive data in
unencrypted form. Let's hope the lessons have been learned.

Not to mention that state laws are now cracking down on those that do not
protect data. Here in Florida, as of last June, not informing every person
whose data has been stolen, and paying for identity theft protection is
subject to fines of up to $500,000. We are recommending to our clients, that
they do not store any sensitive information that they can avoid, and if they
do, protect it like the Crown jewels.

 

[Rick]

Not to mention that state laws are now cracking down on those that do
not protect data. Here in Florida, as of last June, not informing
every person whose data has been stolen, and paying for identity theft
protection is subject to fines of up to $500,000. We are recommending
to our clients, that they do not store any sensitive information that
they can avoid, and if they do, protect it like the Crown jewels.

We are addressing security holes here, as well. We discovered a
background check database for a law-enforement unit, was being maintained
in an Access database on a flash drive!

 

[Arvin Meyer [MVP]]

We are addressing security holes here, as well. We discovered a
background check database for a law-enforement unit, was being maintained
in an Access database on a flash drive!

High-level security of company and personal information can be expensive.
But most good basic security principles are very inexpensive, and are quite
effective for everything but the determined professional hacker. The first
rule, however, is to make sure that your internal practices include treating
employees well. Disgruntled employees account for more company data theft
than any other source.

Secondly, make sure that good long passphrases are in effect for logins. A
good passphrase is more than 20 characters with upper case, lower case,
numeric, and special characters.

marY had 20 LAMBS 4 sale @ $27 each

is a great passphrase, and almost impossible to crack in less than months,
even by a determined hacker. It's easy to remember as well..

Third encrypt everything that's sensitive and not in active use. Make sure
that you encrypt anything that resides on a laptop, or any removable media.
TrueCrypt is a free program that's highly effective, easy to use. What's not
to like!

http://www.truecrypt.org/

 

[Rick]

High-level security of company and personal information can be
expensive. But most good basic security principles are very
inexpensive, and are quite effective for everything but the determined
professional hacker. The first rule, however, is to make sure that
your internal practices include treating employees well. Disgruntled
employees account for more company data theft than any other source.

Secondly, make sure that good long passphrases are in effect for
logins. A good passphrase is more than 20 characters with upper case,
lower case, numeric, and special characters.

marY had 20 LAMBS 4 sale @ $27 each

is a great passphrase, and almost impossible to crack in less than
months, even by a determined hacker. It's easy to remember as well..

Third encrypt everything that's sensitive and not in active use. Make
sure that you encrypt anything that resides on a laptop, or any
removable media. TrueCrypt is a free program that's highly effective,
easy to use. What's not to like!

http://www.truecrypt.org/

Good tips, thanks! (I think Mary needs to raise her prices!)

We walk a fine line here, being a municipal government with a few
thousand employees, and a lot of our information is public by definition.
We're encrypting, extending password requirements, deleting files, et
cetera, but it's a moving target. Our laptops are encypted now with
something called "whole disk encryption" after one with with sensitive
data was stolen a few months ago.