title: What's the best method to use / store encryption keys in MySQL
body: <p>I plan on using MySQL and it's built-in encryption functionality to encrypt / decrypt certain columns in certain tables.  The concern I have is that I need to store the key somewhere.  I could certainly store the key in a file and control the permissions of that file and the permissions of the application that accesses it, but is that enough?  I could also create a web service to get the key or something.</p>
  
  <p>I am in a small shop where I would be the only one (possibly one other person) that would have access to the machine that the application was on.  <strong>Edit:  I should add that there is a web facing part of this application that would need to decrypt the data unless I added a tier.</strong> </p>
  
  <p>I have looked ad nauseum, but no one seems to have a bulletproof answer.</p>
  
  <p>Is this one of those problems where you have to settle for good enough?  Given that I am using MySQL and PHP (possibly Python) is there a better way to approach this?</p>