Is there a common approach to encrypting data at the database level? Is there a common approach to encrypting data at the database level?  The application I am working on will be storing sensitive data that only users of the system themselves will be able to view.
Depending on your security restrictions you could:


use cell-level encryption (basically column-level encryption), which decrypts the data once it hits the buffer pool; it's available in all SQL Server versions, including Express
encrypt/decrypt data in your own application, so unencrypted data is never present in the database server's memory