Encryption of Custom Registration/Profile Fields

#1

Hi there,

I’ve got a client who is very concerned about the security of their members’ personal information. I get the impression standard fields like passwords are encrypted by default (using the Security Encryption Key?), but what about custom fields? Things like their home address, phone number, bio, etc.

They’re currently storing their info in an unencrypted excel file on one of their home computers, and I’m trying to convince them it would be more secure to store their membership info using s2member. What exactly would an attacker need in order to gain access to the unencrypted user info?

#2

They’d need access to the server. All payment gateways that I know of require SSL, so data in transmission is encrypted, but much of it is stored unencrypted. If there is a payment gateway left that does not require SSL, don’t use it.

If s2Member logging is enabled (NOT recommended on a production site and all existing logs should be removed when you move into production), some (frankly most) personal information is stored unencrypted. Most personal information is also unencrypted in the WordPress database: this is standard for WordPress and is not limited to s2Member, by the way: most data in the database is unencrypted).

#3

SSL on all the site should be OK. No really good way to keep encrypted member’s info, as it is used on lots of cases (emails, pages etc) and should be decrypted, and this is a “security weakness” too. So a good balance between “strong security” and “good productivity” is SSL, for me.

Also Excel file in a home computer is more weak than the WP DB on the server behind SSL and firewalls of the hosting company.

#4

I agree completely. As long as the information is not being sent unencrypted or stored in plain-text, you should be fine. If someone hacks your WordPress database, you are screwed anyway you look at it. That said, most personal information stolen on the Internet is stolen from servers/databases and not from transactions being transmitted. You are much more likely to have your credit card information stolen from your bank than you are by having the transaction stolen at a vendor site. (Unless you are doing business with shady characters.)