So you have a profitable trading system that is automated and you try to tell very little people, but either way there are people know do know, you trust em' but you never know if someone knows that your computer at your house contains a program that will make someone rich. What do you do?
I used to think that. But you have to remember that people represent the worst of the following characteristics amongst the retail public: 1) cynical (so what who cares, I have no money to invest) 2) lazy (they could care less) 3) disbelieving & critical (they think you are trying to rip them off) 4) all of the above If you find someone who does not fit the above criteria, he is probably (hopefully) one of your investors. Most Hedge funds fit into the above retail public categories too. Even when they are bleeding money, they would often be too proud to reach out for that life raft of a system you might have. And if they did, they would probably simply demand that you regurgitate the system in an interview, though they would likely be too stupid to make sense of it (being too proud makes people stupid).
So your back again are you with this same crap. You should be called paranoia guy. For a guy who calls himself programmer guy dont you know anything about IT security?
If the automated program has made you rich, then you can afford decent security. Most likely your automated program will blow up in the next month or two, so your concerns won't really matter after all.
Most automated systems are quite complex in their setup and use, so I wouldn't worry about it. Then again, If you really had one, you would understand what I am talking about. In the meantime, dream on.....
Download TrueCrypt and install it on a 2G flash drive. TrueCrypt has 256 bit encrypt and is free. With TrueCrypt create a virtual drive on your flash drive and save your software, passwords and data on the tinydrive. Attach the tiny flash drive, about the size of a quarter, on your car key ring. When you go out it goes with you. You can also just encrypt a folder on your hard drive that will be very safe even if the computer is stolen. Total cost about $25. Not a problem. Good luck!
The advantages of having a system that no one can understand but you is that it has an automatic and natural security feature because who-ever gets it would have to first try and decipher it before they could ever use it.
256 bit is not enough, it may be enough for small time operators, but for any sort of small gov or bigger company forget it