diff --git a/plugins/encrypt.py b/plugins/encrypt.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..95bdf44
--- /dev/null
+++ b/plugins/encrypt.py
@@ -0,0 +1,102 @@
+from util import hook
+from Crypto import Random
+from Crypto.Cipher import AES
+from Crypto.Protocol.KDF import PBKDF2
+
+import os
+import base64
+import json
+import hashlib
+
+# helper functions to pad and unpad a string to a specified block size
+# <http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12524994/encrypt-decrypt-using-pycrypto-aes-256> 
+BS = AES.block_size
+pad = lambda s: s + (BS - len(s) % BS) * chr(BS - len(s) % BS) 
+unpad = lambda s : s[0:-ord(s[-1])]
+
+# helper functions to encrypt and encode a string with AES and base64
+encode_aes = lambda c, s: base64.b64encode(c.encrypt(pad(s)))
+decode_aes = lambda c, s: unpad(c.decrypt(base64.b64decode(s)))
+
+db_ready = False
+
+
+def db_init(db):
+    """check to see that our db has the the encryption table."""
+    db.execute("create table if not exists encryption(encrypted, iv, "
+               "primary key(encrypted))")
+    db.commit()
+    db_ready = True
+
+
+def get_salt(bot):
+    """generate an encryption salt if none exists, then returns the salt"""
+    if not bot.config.get("random_salt", False):
+        bot.config["random_salt"] = hashlib.md5(os.urandom(16)).hexdigest()
+        json.dump(bot.config, open('config', 'w'), sort_keys=True, indent=2)
+    return bot.config["random_salt"]
+
+
+@hook.command
+def encrypt(inp, bot=None, db=None, notice=None):
+    """encrypt <pass> <string> -- Encrypts <string> with <pass>. (<string> can only be decrypted using this bot)"""
+    if not db_ready:
+        db_init(db)
+
+    split = inp.split(" ")
+
+    # if there is only one argument, return the help message
+    if len(split) == 1:
+        notice(encrypt.__doc__)
+        return 
+
+    # generate the key from the password and salt
+    password = split[0]
+    salt = get_salt(bot)
+    key = PBKDF2(password, salt)
+
+    # generate the IV and encode it to store in the database
+    iv = Random.new().read(AES.block_size);
+    iv_encoded = base64.b64encode(iv)
+
+    # create the AES cipher and encrypt/encode the text with it
+    text = " ".join(split[1:])
+    cipher = AES.new(key, AES.MODE_CBC, iv)
+    encoded = encode_aes(cipher, text)
+
+    # store the encoded text and IV in the DB for decoding later
+    db.execute("insert or replace into encryption(encrypted, iv)"
+               "values(?,?)", (encoded, iv_encoded))
+    db.commit()
+
+    return encoded
+
+
+@hook.command
+def decrypt(inp, bot=None, db=None, notice=None):
+    """decrypt <pass> <string> -- Decrypts <string> with <pass>. (can only decrypt strings encrypted on this bot)"""
+    if not db_ready:
+        db_init(db)
+
+    split = inp.split(" ")
+
+    # if there is only one argument, return the help message
+    if len(split) == 1:
+        notice(decrypt.__doc__)
+        return 
+
+    # generate the key from the password and salt	
+    password = split[0]
+    salt = get_salt(bot)
+    key = PBKDF2(password, salt)
+
+    text = " ".join(split[1:])
+
+    # get the encoded IV from the database and decode it
+    iv_encoded = db.execute("select iv from encryption where"
+                           " encrypted=?", (text,)).fetchone()[0]
+    iv = base64.b64decode(iv_encoded)
+
+    # create AES cipher, decode text, decrypt text, and unpad it
+    cipher = AES.new(key, AES.MODE_CBC, iv)
+    return decode_aes(cipher, text)
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