I agree that you need to encrypt the column (field) and not the table. I use Codemine and it has a simple encryption built-in. Some ideas, pad the password so a hacker cannot guess the length of the password; use a checksum (with the user's name) to prevent an internal hacker from copying his/her password to someone else's account; store the password, rights granted, and anything else in one big memo field (encrypted) to make it harder to crack or change settings.

John