Patent ID: 7418098

Claim:
A method encrypting characters from a data element in a database, the method comprising: reading information identifying a data type associated with data in a particular column of the database from a location in the database, the location being outside the particular column; reading a data element from the particular column, the data element including a first character string; associating an index value with each character in the first character string; defining an initial value; creating a second character string formed by replacing each character in the first character string with the character's associated index value; replacing each index value in the second character string with a result obtained from adding adjacent index values pairwise from the left to the right using the initial value when adding the leftmost character; encrypting the second character string wherein each character in the encrypted second character string is a valid member of the identified data type associated with the data element, where said encrypting includes converting encrypted replaced index values to characters; and storing the encrypted second character string at the particular column of the first character string in the database.