I'm looking to store some fairly sensitive data using PHP and MySQL and will be using some form of reversible encryption to do so since I need to get the data back out in plain text for it to be of any use.

I'll be deriving the encryption key from the users' username/password combination but I'm stumped for what to do in the (inevitable) event of a password being forgotten. I realise that the purpose of encryption is that it can only be undone using the correct key but this must have been addressed before..

I'm trying to get my head around whether or not public key cryptography would apply to the problem but all I can think of is that the private key will still need to be correct to decrypt the data..

Any ideas?