Category Archives: MySQL

I am working on a site that has an online health and safety course where you buy x number of serials to use. 1 serial per candidate. We don’t store credit card details and payments are processed securely by a third party. At the moment we do collect/store the address of any sign-up in a mysql database.

Even though it is still quite a new site with fairly limited budget I, as the developer, am trying to make the site as secure as possible. I would like to remove the address/telephone numbers from the database so if there was an intrusion there is less and less for the perpetrator to attempt to steal. We don’t need the address/tel stored in the db for any of the functions to work and as it is a digital product we don’t need to send out to postal address. But we do want to keep the info and store locally if/when needed for marketing.

It’s easy enough to remove the address/tel from the DB and update the payment process so these details are emailed instead to my client, who could then copy and paste all addresses as they arrive into a local spreadsheet and delete the email. But as I have read, it is taboo to send plain text passwords etc via email.

So, would it be acceptable to email ‘addresses/telephone numbers’ after payment in plain text which my client could promptly transfer to a local spreadsheet? Would this be considered more secure than storing such info in a database (which potentially could always be compromised)? Or is there some other method one would recommend in this situation?

Continue reading What secure alternatives do I have to storing postal addresses/telephone numbers in MySQL?→