Encrypted journals.

Dale Harris · Post by **Dale Harris** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 11:42 pm

Well gang it seems as though that sometime in the future that the journal files will need to be encrypted.

The problem is that since your local tax buddies use the journal to determine that what you say you sold bares at least a passing resemblance to what you actually did sell, it is unfortunate that by loading the journal into any word processing program that you can have your nefarious way with it.

Complaints have been made. Offical, government type ones.

So eventually the journal files will have to be encrypted. While you will still be able to make changes in the file, any changes you do make will come out as gobble-de-gook when the journal is displayed on the screen or printed out. This will make it kind of obvious to any of your tax pals that someone has been fooling around where they should not have been. The bottom line is that the journal can be erased, trashed, or rendered completely incomprehensible, but you won't be able to make coherent changes in it.

This also means that I will have to write a new program file that will display or print out the journal in plain text. But it will not create a plain text file of the journal because that is the problem that we started with.

Comments?

cmputerman · Post by **cmputerman** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 7:05 am

To me, that would be an excellent Idea!

I don't want anyone peeking through my DHPOS journal.

Great Idea Dale!

Dale Harris · Post by **Dale Harris** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 10:02 am

cmputerman,

Well actually the purpose of encrypting the journal is not to hide it but to prevent anyone from changing it. In fact you will be able to email the journal and anyone with the the program that can display & print the journal will be able to do so. While I may password protect the display & print program the journals themselves will not be protected by password.

So if your tax friends want a copy of your journals you can just email them and as long as they also have a copy of the journal display & print program they will be able to see them.

GAWG · Post by **GAWG** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 5:38 pm

What bout any export controls on the encryption, public keys etc etc?

Dale Harris · Post by **Dale Harris** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 7:18 pm

Nope. The program will display or print any journal it loads without a password. Remember the purpose of encrypting it is not to hide it but to prevent anyone from changing it.

cmputerman · Post by **cmputerman** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 7:42 pm

Dale Harris wrote:cmputerman,

Well actually the purpose of encrypting the journal is not to hide it but to prevent anyone from changing it. In fact you will be able to email the journal and anyone with the the program that can display & print the journal will be able to do so. While I may password protect the display & print program the journals themselves will not be protected by password.

So if your tax friends want a copy of your journals you can just email them and as long as they also have a copy of the journal display & print program they will be able to see them.

OK thanks a lot for explaining that to me Dale! But anyways, it sounds like a great idea!

Thanks again!
cmputerman

ChrisKraus · Post by **ChrisKraus** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 3:17 pm

This is a very inportent thing to encrypt your sales data. Sales data is crutial information.

- Chris

GAWG · Post by **GAWG** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 8:17 am

Can this please be an option? I prefer to have an editable journal as I have no need to encrypt it.

Thx

Dale Harris · Post by **Dale Harris** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 9:02 am

Gawg,

Being able to edit the journal is the problem. How do you convince your local tax pals that your journal is accurate when it is possible to edit it?

Dale

GAWG · Post by **GAWG** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 5:36 pm

If I keep my sales sheet on a paper journal, it is just as editable. Regular cash registers that most people use don't have an electronic journal and must rely on receipt print outs, correct?

I would just print it out and mail it to them. Has this been a problem for users before?

Since I don't have employees, I don't need to keep others out of it. But I like the ability to load it into word processing and save it to different locations and different computers prefer not having to read it through the POS software. An option to apply or disallow encrypting works well both ways but it's probably a matter of how it works into the code on your end

Post by **Andrew** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 7:22 pm

Gawg, the result of the encryption need is an important one - it has come around as a result of a governmental complaint - resulting in at least one user being informed that they must switch POS systems if DHPOS doesn't encrypt journal data.

Having encryption as an option doesn't make a lot of sense to me, and would result in code being present at every stage when the journal is written to to determine if it is to be encrypted or not.

We might as well have an option: "Select register mode: 1. Allow journal to be fraudulently altered, 2. Ensure journal is kept honest and true, 3. POS chooses".

ChrisKraus · Post by **ChrisKraus** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 1:53 pm

andrewbunn wrote:We might as well have an option: "Select register mode: 1. Allow journal to be fraudulently altered, 2. Ensure journal is kept honest and true, 3. POS chooses".

<HR>
What Does POS Choose?

- Chris

Post by **Andrew** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 12:24 am

Option 3 would activate a random number generator. Odd number = be law abiding, even number = allow open access to edit the journal.

edseah · Post by **edseah** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 8:31 pm

Hi, I agree that I like to have an option to have it encrypted or not.

For me and also the tax ppl, they don't bother about your POS. Even if you have none its fine. But they expect a printout of a cosolidate proof the this is the amount you end your sales. This is the real thing they audit.

If they smell that the closing is questionable, they you have to open up the sales journal for audit. This is then the part where you have to open up a file for them.....

You know what I mean?

Rgds

DHES

Encrypted journals.

Not hidden

No controls

Re: Not hidden

Journal Encryption

That's the problem

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