From the Oracle Technology Network site today, there's this new HowTo on encrypting you data in Oracle using PHP.

A crucial but easily overlooked aspect of data storage is protecting sensitive information'"from passwords, to credit cards, to social security numbers'"using encryption. Thus an understanding as to what encryption techniques are available in Oracle (via a PHP interface), and how best to use them, is important for all Web developers.

In this HowTo, you'll get a brief introduction to the necessary tools, and even get some specific code, for improving the security of your data.

They look first at a little background - what is encryption and how is it usually used. Following that, the code comes out, showing you how to create the encryption functionality in the PL/SQL area and subit the data into the procedure via PHP. They show three different kinds of storage methods you can use as well - hashed, MAC, and AES encryption.

Thanks to Nexen.net for the pointer...