How to Read Encrypted Data from SQL DB?

[lagunascorpio]

I'm evaluating QTP 11. If our SQL Server database has encrypted fields for SSN, credit card, etc... what's the best way to read that data for data-driven tests?

From my earliest research... one way would be to create a .NET DLL with a method capable of connecting to SQL Server, querying & decrypting the data, then returning it to QTP in real time.

Can this be done using Visual Studio 2010? I followed a simple example I found online and it didn't work.

[lagunascorpio]

I figured out the 2nd part of this (consuming a VS2010 .NET DLL)... so maybe I can have that DLL do the decryption heavy lifting.