Use data masking techniques to secure your sensitive data records

What is Data Masking?

The growing number of high-profile incidents in which sensitive and confidential data has been lost, stolen or leaked has created a panic in the industry. As strict laws and governing bodies such as HIPAA, the PCI DSS, the GLBA, the DPA and SOX continue to put pressure on organizations, the stakes become higher when managing patient health information, HR data and financial data. It is immensely important to comply with data protection legislation. Data breaches can no longer be swept under the rug and organizations require data masking solutions to help protect their sensitive data records.

So, what is data masking? Data masking strategies will obscure or de-identify specific data within a database table, flat file or XML message ensuring that data security is maintained and sensitive customer information is not leaked outside of authorized environments. This type of process is generally used for non-production environments, in particular testing and development. Masking algorithms are applied across multiple tables, applications and environments so referential and business integrity will be maintained.

Other terms for "data masking" may include: data obfuscation, data scrambling, data anonymization and data cleansing.

"The depersonalization features of the Grid-Tools software removed headaches for us, as we can now easily demonstrate compliance with data protection rules."

Nigel Williams, Senior Systems Consultant, Watson Wyatt

Grid-Tools help to protect your sensitive records with data masking solutions

Grid-Tools offers straightforward data masking solutions for all major database types, flat files and XML messages. Grid-Tools provide out-of-the box data masking solutions like Fast Data Masking™ for large databases such as Oracle, DB2, SQLServer and Teradata, and Simple Data Masking™ for users who need an inexpensive and simple data masking tool that can be quickly implemented for small and medium projects.

Grid-Tools data masking software offers multiple architectures, allowing you to choose the method that suits your specific database and environments.

These available methods include:

• In-situ table updates
• Shadow table cloning
• Extract and mask
• Masking via views

Datamaker can also apply sophisticated database subsetting as part of the masking process, allowing you to shrink and mask your data on one go. The data masking design process does not require access to production data; you can design your masks and then deploy them separately to your secure infrastructure. As part of the overall data masking strategy, Datamaker™ also allows you to create data where no data exists through an innovative data creation process. This process examines production characteristics and generates "production like" data, providing the most secure alternative to traditional methods.

Why not protect your valuable information assets with an internationally known data masking solution and best practice advice from the experts?

Datamaker™ offers multiple data masking and data scrambling architectures

Most data masking vendors use a separate staging environment to mask or obfuscate records, as seen in the middle portion of the diagram below. Grid-Tools Datamaker™ can be set-up to mask data using multiple architectures including; staging, extract and mask, shadow tables and database views. As well as masking, Datamaker™ can use sophisticated subsetting techniques to "cleanly" extract and mask in one go, eliminating the staging process if you wish.

We can also create and generate test data from scratch using the production characteristic, not the real production data.