That is why FieldShield is better!
Consider the key benefits and differentiators
Learn why IRI FACT is a smarter choice than the two alternatives:
Why is IRI FieldShield the best choice among data masking tools for databases and flat files? Learn why the first commercial data masking product outside the mainframe is still regularly chosen by enterprises and government agencies around the world interested in profiling and protecting personally identifiable information (PII), complying with data privacy laws, eliminating data breaches, and anonymizing production data for testing.
Look at these nine areas to discover some of the product highlights and check out the other tabs on FieldShield. Please also read our robust sections on Data masking and to Test data as these self-learning materials, to learn even more.
Nur FieldShield includes multiple Data Source Profiling and Scan Methods, which assist you in classifying and locating PII in flat files, databases, Excel, and cloud storage repositories. Create statistical reports and charts, ER diagrams, and multiple searches and new target schemas.
Only FieldShield protects sensitive data at rest or in transit with dozens of masking features in 15 different categories which support an unlimited number of business rules and data-centric conditions. You can several database and file sources separately or in combination (e.g., ETL environments) with other operations in the same order and I/O pass mask.
Static data masking jobs can be run against source data (and on the fly) or replicated data via: 1) the executable command line, 2) API calls (see the SDK for .NET, C/C++, and Java), 3) the free IRI Workbench Eclipse™ FieldShield GUI, 4) Batch Scripts, 5) Job Scheduler, 6) CI/CD Pipelines, 7) SQL Stored Procedures, 8) Real-time DB Update Operations in IRI Ripcurrent or 9) Third-party program system calls. In addition to static data masking with FieldShield, several methods for dynamic data masking (and even decryption) are available.
Most encryption solutions have one method or key and cover an entire data source or device. If they are compromised, everything is exposed. With FieldShield, other fields are protected even then, if one of them is breached. Multiple encryption functions and keys for different fields and different recipients are also helpful, as is the choice of three internal key management methods and proven integrations with the Microsoft Azure Key Vault and the Townsend Security Alliance Key Manager System.
Several non-reversible data masking and obfuscation functions as well as the simple removal of fields also increase security; see our articles on the Selection of the data masking function and the Deletion of data.
FieldShield jobs, data definitions, audit files and related assets can be managed through a free, distributed Metadata management hub secured and on the basis of of rolls in different ways be controlled.
The security of the masked data is also increased by the risk measurement functions contained in FieldShield. For research and marketing data sets with masked identifiers, quasi-identifiers can still be unmasked. FieldShield users can Assess the risk of re-identification and further generalize the data, to preserve their utility while reducing the ability of attackers to expose individuals in the data set.
FieldShield runs on all Unix, Linux and Windows platforms and works with all ODBC-connected database tables and the sequential file formats common to most applications and mainframes, including files with header and footer entries.
FieldShield also uses the same metadata and the same Eclipse GUI (IRI Workbench) like FieldShield:
IRI DarkShield for finding and masking PII in multiple unstructured sources
IRI CellShield EE for finding and masking PII in Excel spreadsheets LAN-wide
IRI Ripcurrent for real-time replication and masking with FieldShield data classes and functions
IRI CoSort for data transformation and reporting
IRI RowGen for realistic test data synthesis or subsetting
IRI NextForm for database, file and data conversion and replication
IRI FACT (Fast Extract) for unloading very large databases
IRI Voracity for overall data management, i.e. discovery, integration, migration, governance and analytics, where FieldShield data masking functions can be expressed and executed in the same job and I/O pass with data transformation, database subsetting, cleansing, replication and reporting operations, for example.
Many of the masking functions in FieldShield are also plug-compatible with IRI CellShield for masking PII in Excel spreadsheets and the IRI DarkShield API for masking PII in unstructured text/log files, PDF/MS Office documents, NoSQL databases and images.
You can also use FieldShield job scripts together with Windocks, Actifio- or Commvault-cloning operations to seamlessly mask copies of the databases you virtualize/replicate for testing. For integrated test data provisioning, FieldShield, DarkShield or RowGen jobs can be used in Amazon CodePipeline, Azure DevOps, GitLab and Jenkins CI/CD operations can be called up.
FieldShield data definition files work with all IRI products and are compatible with erwin (AnalytiX DS) Mapping Manager and the Meta Integration Model Bridge (MIMB) compatible. Their .ddf support means you can quickly leverage existing metadata in your ETL, BI and modeling tools for FieldShield and other IRI software.
FieldShield's on-demand, field-level protection capabilities are faster than full database or device-centric encryption approaches, especially in real-time. The FieldShield masking functions also consume less CPU and I/O. They can even be executed conditionally, i.e. bound to new or specific rows, value ranges or discrete values.
FieldShield also uses the decades of proven and improved large Big Data Moving machine of its parent product IRI CoSort, to scale performance linearly in volume. An Oracle table with 21 million rows and multiple columns to be encrypted was masked and updated from a Windows PC with LAN connection using FieldShield in 11 minutes. Most masking jobs run faster, as do classification and search operations on large tables and schemas.
In IRI Voracity there is Hadoop options for executing FieldShield jobs to scale them horizontally and elastically - without recoding. So when it comes to performance in terms of volume, FieldShield is the only choice.
FieldShield allows you to specify data protection on a conditional basis, using either SQL SELECT syntax or /INCLUDE-OMIT logic in your jobs, so that you can target the protection function to a pattern, value, or range in a particular column or string. Because FieldShield leverages the power of the data manipulation and formatting program CoSort SortCL you can use its syntax and functions to accommodate custom business logic that requires joins, substrings, sequencing, statistical calculations, aggregations, data validation and cleansing, reporting and much more.
With FieldShield, you can of course choose a protection for each field from one of the masking function categories or from your saved rules based on your business rules. Let's take a health insurance claims table with 19 columns, 3 of which contain PHI: Pseudonymize the name, mask the SSN, encrypt the medical billing code, and leave the rest of the data alone.
FieldShield's data masking functionality also integrates seamlessly with various test data scenarios in IRI Workbench, including the application of masking functions in the Database subsetting-wizards, ETL operations, direct population of referentially correct tables in lower non-production environments or virtualization of test data for immediate DevOps requirements.
FieldShield creates data mapping diagrams and queryable XML (and soon JSON) job logs to check the steps, that you have undertaken to comply with data protection regulations. The logs contain the runtime and application environment that the auditors require. The logs can be public or private (e.g. via the free EGit-Asset-Security) and SIEM tools such as Splunk through Add-ons like this fill up.
FieldShield can also the risk of re-identification based on the discrimination and segregation values it finds in the indirect or quasi-identifiers of your data and creates charts and reports to help you further generalize those values and comply with FERPA and the HIPAA Expert Determination Rule.
FieldShield allows you to specify backups on a conditional basis using SQL SELECT syntax or /INCLUDE-OMIT logic in your jobs so that you can target the protection function based on a pattern, value or range in a specific column or string.
Select a protection for each field from one of the 14 functional categories or your saved rules based on your business rules. Consider a health insurance claims table with 19 columns, 3 of which have PHI in them: Pseudonymize the name, mask the SSN, scramble the medical billing code, and leave the rest of the data alone.
The FieldShield masking functionality also extends seamlessly into various test data scenarios in the IRI Workbench, including the application of masking functions in the database subsetting wizard, ETL operations, direct population of reference-correct tables in lower-level non-production environments, or virtualization of test data for immediate DevOps needs.
FieldShield uses self-documenting 4GL-scripts to define the layouts and masking of table columns and file fields. And with the IRI Workbench GUI, which is built on Eclipse™, not even the simple syntax needs to be learned or programmed by hand. The scripts interact with a color-coded, syntax-aware and graphical Form-Editor with graphical Outlines, and with Dialogs for parameter modification and transformation mappingDiagrams, which are all interactive and arranged in the same console.
User-friendly wizards for data determination and order definition also help you with the automatic Designing and creating these scripts. Data and job specifications can be easily changed in the GUI or in any text editor ... something other data masking tools do not offer.
FieldShield as a standalone product is licensed for perpetual use in the low five-figure range and is discounted in volume and distributed runtime integration scenarios. Five FieldShield masking engine licenses are alternatively available free of charge - together with IRI CellShield EE, IRI DarkShield and IRI RowGen (for test data synthesis and DB subsetting) - in the base layer of the IRI Voracity-data management platform subscriptions.
IRI is a stable, U.S.-based company (since 1978) that is not burdened by outside shareholders or large marketing expenditures. Customers appreciate these savings or the included use of all FieldShield capabilities within the broader Voracity data management platform for data discovery, integration, migration, management and analysis.