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Alfahane

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How can I test encryption strength?

I'm going to store encrypted text in my datebase. But before that I want to test whether the encryption is acceptable enough. The thing is that I've encrypted a 4-letter word and the encrypted string is only 12 characters, and that seems a bit "week".

I need some kind of assurance. Is there a software that tries to decrypt encrypted data?
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Dave Howe
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Alfahane

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I'm using this method:
http://aspencrypt.com/task_creditcard.html
What do you think about this method?

I was also thinking of salting the text string before encrypting. Also, I was thinking of storing the salt encrypted with the method above.
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Great suggestions.

Yes, the encryption key storage is a problem, but I really don't have an idea where to store it. I need it to encrypt data when users register and/or edit their info. The only info stored will be name, email, address etc, but not credit card or something like that.
Regarding padding, should I randomize the length? Does make any difference to the hacker wether the padding length is known?
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