Securely storing the Encryption Key on the Server?

[Thomas Butler]

Here is what I am trying to do:
User inputs sensitive data (Social Security Number) in a Web Form. Data will be stored encrypted in the database using AES or DES. The Java front-end web application needs to have access to the encryption key in order to execute the SQL Query to encrypt the data. Since AES uses a password, and DES also uses a password or key (that can be read from a file), my question is how can I securely store the AES password in my Java application and/or how can I securely store the key in the DES-Key-File on the web server? Is there a way to encrypt the encryption key and maintain the password for that encryption off of the server?

Thanks for any help.

Note my environment is:
MySQL 5.0, Windows 2003, Java Web Application