The Cryptographer utility may be used as a general-purpose tool to encrypt and decrypt files.  The file to be encrypted does not necessarily have to be an MCMP database.

Using mobile devices such as laptops, floppy disks, flash drives, CD-ROM and other portable media to transport sensitive files are prone to security breaches.  It is advisable that files, containing patient-identifiable information, be encrypted when transported from one location to another.

MCMP Cryptographer main window.

Activity
This specifies the activity to be performed.  Encrypt will encrypt the file specified in the Source File and will create an encrypted file specified in the Target File.  Decrypt will decrypt the source file and create a decrypted Target File.

Password
If the activity selected is Encrypt, supply the password that will be used to encrypt the file.  If the activity selected is Decrypt, supply the password that will be used to decrypt the file.

Password-checking is case sensitive.  For example, if a user encrypted a file with a password of "abcdef12", the utility will not decrypt the file if the password used to decrypt it is "Abcdef12".  Note that the first character is capitalized in the second password.

A password has a minimum of 8 characters.

Confirm Password
This is only enabled if the activity selected is Encrypt.  Enter here the exact text that has been supplied in the Password text box.

Source File
If the activity selected is Encrypt, select the MCMP database to be encrypted.  Otherwise, select an encrypted file to be decrypted.  Although this utility has been designed to secure MCMP-PAT databases, it can be used to encrypt other files as well.

Target File
If the activity selected is Encrypt, provide the name of the encrypted file to be created.  If the activity selected is Decrypt, enter the name of the decrypted file.  If the Target File exists, the user is asked if it will be overwritten or not.