Dear Sirs et Madames,
I am trying to create a
Java application which takes a userID and then encrypts it. The code am using is just something I picked up off the net, I have NO experience with encryption. The problem is that even though the
string to be encrypted should (and always will be) 10 characters long, the result is always 24 characters. Considering that the encrypted result will be transformed into a barcode, that creates a rather large barcode, unsuitable for my needs. Am sure there must be a way whereby I encrypt a 10 character string and get back a ten character encrypted version? The code I have is as below:
From what I understand, a triple DES key has to be a 24 byte array. What are the alternatives so that the encrypted version I get back is of the same number of characters (or less, if possible) than the original text?
Also, I am not sure as to how well suited this solution is to my problem. Will different Java Virtual Machines produce different keys, meaning that multiple installations will not be able to reproduce the same encryption given the same keyString?
Is there a simpler solution, considering that the only thing I desire is that the USER_ID is obfuscated to the human eye (doctors, nurses, prying eyes cannot tell WHO these blood results belong to, only the system can). In which case is there not a simple(r) obfuscation algorithm I could use?
Thanks in advance,
Tumaini