Be wary of this method as you are talking to the database "through" the entity bean. So when the persistence implementation is putting and getting it is also crypting/decrypting. You end up having two crpyts or a double decrypt going on quite quickly and you fix it for a read from the database only to have it fail for a pure "create" call coming from your business logic. So, I have moved the crypt/decrypt into the business logic. :/ View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4006627#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...