I have read the following question: [Storing password in Java application](https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/19956/storing-password-in-java-application) but I don't find the answers useful for my case.

So here is my question somehow related to that. I have a Java Web application with a back end DataBase secured access with username and password. 

Right now the username/password sits in a .properties file on the web server. The server is secure, but having it like that in plain text kinda bothers me.

Tried at some point to use secure stores to encrypt/decrypt the username and password but the stores are themselves protected by a password so where do I store that? I'm back to square one.

So? What is the best way to store username/passwords for connecting to other systems (database, web service etc)