Patent ID: 7743069

Claim:
In a database system, a method for providing automated encryption support for column data, the method comprising: defining Structured Query Language (SQL) extensions for creating and managing column encryption keys, and for creating and managing database tables with encrypted column data; receiving a first SQL statement that uses said SQL extensions to specify creation of a named encryption key for encrypting column data, said named encryption key being identified in said first SQL statement by a user-assigned syntactically unique name; parsing the first SQL statement, including creating said named encryption key with the user-assigned syntactically unique name, which can be parsed from within other SQL statements employing said SQL extensions; receiving a second SQL statement that uses said SQL extensions to specify creation of a database table having particular column data encrypted with said named encryption key, said named encryption key being identified in said second SQL statement by said user-assigned syntactically unique name; parsing the second SQL statement, including identifying said named encryption key upon parsing a portion of the statement that comprises the syntactically unique name for the key; in response to parsing the second SQL statement, creating a database table having particular column data encrypted with said named encryption key identified upon parsing the second SQL statement; and in response to a subsequent database operation that requires particular column data that has been encrypted with said named encryption key, automatically decrypting the particular column data with said named encryption key, so that the particular column data is available in decrypted form for use by the database operation.