the database to search for matches at step 2080 any results are returned to the originating calling procedure at step 2090 in the originating format therefore the returned data may be decrypted in to plain text using a reverse of the encryption function or functions originally applied in this way a search term may be processed and executed to return results from a fully or partially encrypted database and encrypted or protected columns may also be searched without first decrypting large amounts of data or entire columns a standard type sql query can be run against any or all encrypted field or columns within a database therefore such queries are not restricted to unencrypted fields or primary keys such as customer id for example any business data may be fully protected by encryption without jeopardising searching facilities the method 2000 may be incorporated as an additional layer or function between a search interface and the encrypted database fig3 shows a schematic diagram of a system 300 used to implement the methods described with reference to fig1 and 2 a server 310 with a suitable operating system such as for example oracle sun solaris unix windows or linux runs a database management system such as for example oracle rdbms ms sql server or ingres data may be added directly or across a network 330 from terminals or clients 320 these clients terminals or other data feeds 320 may also execute queries to return data stored in the database 1060 data sources and query originators may also be separate devices external systems may also access and run queries on the database 1060 either across the network 330 or via other communication means the network 330 may.