Working with an encrypted database

Handle searchs by encrypting the value of the needle in the haystack being searched.

I have not seen many systems where ALL the data was encrypted. It was usually just the sensitive things with value like passwords, emails, Gov't identification numbers, medical records, account numbers, monetary values, etc. Most of the time names and other identifying info was not encrypted. There were exceptions where it was all hashed, but they were few few.

Thanks. Yeah, I thinking now it will just be the sensitive patient records that will be encrypted and that any fields that can be searched upon will not be.

Although further issue is if encryption key is stored on the server as plain text, as it would be with CI encryption library, and the server is then compromised, attacker would have the key required to decrypt the contents of the database. Are there any solutions that can help to guard against that?