Redact data

Redact or remove sensitive data

Data masking - overview
Anonymize
User-defined
Coding
Encrypt
Hash
Pseudonymize
Randomize
Blackening
Scrambling
Twiddle
Move
Tokenize
Challenges

Personally identifiable information (PII) that is not needed for downstream use or recovery should be redacted (masked with characters or removed) to prevent misuse. In the meantime, other data elements or selected parts of the PII value itself may still need to be exposed.

At the same time, the masking should preserve the original storage format and the overall appearance of the field so that the platform structure (e.g., DB table) or application does not need to be changed. Masking all but the last four digits of a credit card or social security number with asterisks is a common requirement for data redaction.

While DBAs can drop columns in tables, there are few alternatives for masking data in different ways across multiple databases and data sources.
Solutions

To data in Sleep mode to edit, use the built-in functions in:

To process data in motion (dynamic data masking), you use either the:

  • replace_char API function in FieldShield SDK

In any case, you can use the IRI product you need to search, classify, and redact a specific number of bytes, defined (sub)strings, entire fields, or one or more lines. Choose the type and start/stop positions of the masking characters. Determine whether redacting should be applied based on column names or data classes, pattern matches, field value conditions, NER models, etc.

Character masking is just one of the irreversible protection functions of the IRI software. Others are randomization, external source pseudonymization, and possibly hashing. Reversible protection functions include encryption, encoding, a proprietary ASCII de-ID function, same-source pseudonymization, expression logic, and string functions.

SortCL users also have the option to transform and report on data while processing all or part of it.

All IRI software is driven by a free, familiar, Eclipse-based GUI called IRI Workbench supports displaying and profiling multiple data sources, assists with configuring masking jobs, and manages projects for team sharing and compliance verification.

Besides the credit card encryption and the Tokenization options for PCI DSSapplications, IRI also offers a convenient way to completely or partially mask 16-digit credit card numbers in database tables and flat files.

The IRI Workbench GUI For FieldShield, you can automatically mask all but the last 4 digits of the field in any database or flat file. You can also define a different character and a set of digits to be masked in the same dialog:

This or any other data masking function can be ad hoc or as cross-table rule be applied for mass protection.

To generate mathematically valid PANs for the test, use the described IRI RowGen- Function: here.

Besides the Encryption and other ways to protect National Identification (NID) numbers, IRI also offers traditional masks for common NID formats.

The IRI Workbench GUI For FieldShield, NID values in tables and flat files can be automatically masked via this dialog:

The results of these functions are featured in the Tech Tip article in this IRI newsletter introduced. If you are interested in generating computationally valid NID test data, read this Section of the IRI blog.

Besides the Encryption and other options for protecting Social Security Numbers (SSNs), IRI also offers conventional and custom masking options for this 9-digit format.

The IRI Workbench GUI For FieldShield, you can use this dialog to automatically mask SSN field values in tables and flat files:

The data masking function can be ad hoc or as cross-table rule be applied for mass protection.

Use the test data product IRI RowGen, to generate valid and invalid social security numbers: here.

When you manage personal data in database tables or flat files, you can choose which source columns and values should remain or be displayed in your targets. Populate tables, reports, and transfer files with data provided on a need-to-know basis. With IRI Voracity, IRI FieldShield or the SortCLPrograms in IRI CoSort allow you to selectively omit or mask parts of rows or columns based on conditional evaluation logic. This means either filtering out or masking field values or components (substrings or specific bytes) based on your business rules.

When sensitive data resides in unstructured text files, IRI software can help you find, structure, and place this information into protected, structured targets. Additional FieldShield functions such as encryption, de-identification, and masking are also possible on other fields simultaneously. CoSort SortCL users can also process and mask data during data transformation, migration, and reporting.

If you have data in unstructured text files, Microsoft Office documents, .pdf, .rtf or .html files, image files, or faces, use the IRI Workbench Dark Data Discovery Wizard to find (and extract) data that matches patterns or dictionary values, or is otherwise located in a JSON key name, a range boundary, or an NER NLP model. IRI partner technology does the rest.

The IRI Voracity A data management platform can process PII at the field level in HDFS files, cloud applications, and other large data sources (Hive, NoSQL, etc.).

Related solutions

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