TECHNIQUE FOR LOCALIZING KEYPHRASE-BASED DATA ENCRYPTION AND DECRYPTION

A technique, system, and computer program for protecting data stored by a computer system in a computing environment having a connection to a public network. The stored data is created and accessed by a software application, which encrypts it for storing and decrypts it for processing. A secret, immutable value specific to the computer system on which the software is running is combined with information identifying an authorized user in order to form the input key used by the encryption and decryption facilities of the software. Optionally, the secret value can be exposed to the user in order to move the encrypted data to another environment.