COMBINED HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE BASED ENCRYPTION OF DATABASES

A relational database system for encryption of individual data elements comprising a encryption devices of at least two different types, the types being tamper-proof hardware and software implemented. The encryption processes of the system are of at least two different security levels, differing in the type of encryption device holding the process keys for at least one of the process key categories and also differing in which type of device executing the algorithm of the process. Each data element to be protected is assigned an attribute indicating the usage of encryption process of a certain security level.