1. Introduction: Globalization and advances in the Internet and information technology have opened the way to new ways of communication. Countries separated by oceans united through the Internet and the Web. Gone are the days when data and information were stored on paper. Now, everything is stored electronically, which is more reliable and secure. As data grows in multiple folds, security issues also grow at the same rate, raising concerns about its safety. However, regulatory bodies have come up with strict guidelines and policies with constant changes made to keep data and information safe and prevent it from falling into the wrong hands, yet data breaches continue to occur putting people and businesses at great risks . So, it is the time when you need your data to be protected at the root level and data encryption adequately suits to carry out this task and protects data at rest. This document focuses on database encryption for database security, the different methods and levels of database encryption, and its advantages over other data protection methods. Also discusses performance issues associated with data encryption and best practices to minimize overall performance on the database server due to encryption.2. Database Security - Encryption: Database security protects data on a centralized database against compromises of its confidentiality, integrity and availability. It is achieved through various information security controls or processes that include access control, authentication, audits, integrity checks, backups and encryption. The databases have been protected to a higher level through network security measures such as firewalls and n...... paper middle ....... doi:10.1109/TPDS.2013.1543. Sharma, M., Chaudhary, A. and Kumar, S. (2013) Query processing and search performance on encrypted data using an efficient algorithm. International Journal of Computer Applications 62(10), 4, 5-8. doi: arXiv:1308.4687v1 [cs.DB]4. Oracle Company. (2012). Best practices for transparent data encryption. Retrieved from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/security/twp-transparent-data-encryption-bes-130696.pdf5. Hsueh, S. Microsoft Corporation. (2008). Database encryption in SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition. Retrieved from http://technet.microsoft.com/enus/library/cc278098(v=sql.100).aspx6. Keshavamurthy, B., Khan, A., & Toshniwal, D. (2013). Mining privacy-preserving association rules on distributed databases using a genetic algorithm. Neural Computing and Applications, 22351-364. doi:10.1007/s00521-013-1343-9.