Designing Databases
Encrypted Storage Model
Database Security
PHP Manual

## Connecting to Database

You may want to establish the connections over SSL to encrypt client/server communications for increased security, or you can use ssh to encrypt the network connection between clients and the database server. If either of these is used, then monitoring your traffic and gaining information about your database will be difficult for a would-be attacker.

Designing Databases
Encrypted Storage Model
Database Security
PHP Manual