You can use FIPS-certified security algorithms to encrypt your database files, or to encrypt communications for database client/server communication, web services, and .
Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 specifies requirements for security algorithms. FIPS 140-2 is granted by the American and Canadian governments through the National Institute of Standards and Testing (NIST) and the Canadian Communications Security Establishment (CSE).
SAP Sybase IQ uses a FIPS-certified module for encryption from Certicom. On Windows (desktop and Windows Mobile) and Unix platforms, SAP Sybase IQ uses Certicom Security Builder GSE (FIPS Module v2.0). This is number 542 on the page http://csrc.nist.gov/cryptval/140-1/140val-all.htm.
Optionally, you can enforce the use of FIPS-certified encryption on the client or server with a FIPS option. When you set the FIPS option to on, all secure communications must be FIPS-certified. If someone tries to use non-FIPS RSA encryption, it is automatically upgraded to FIPS-certified RSA encryption. The FIPS option can be set on the client or server on which you want FIPS-certified encryption to be enforced. SAP Sybase IQ has a -fips command line option, and clients have a fips option that can be set with the encryption connection parameter.