PowerCenter Data Masking Option

Protecting Sensitive, Private Information

Organizations take extreme measures to secure private data in production environments. But often non-production environments, such as development, test, or training, are overlooked. These environments require realistic data and are often provided with a copy of the production data. As a result, non-production environments are an attractive target to malicious users. Data masking can help protect private data in test environments or when the data is sent to an outsourcing or offshore vendor.

The Data Masking Option is used to protect sensitive, private information by masking it in-flight to produce de-identified but realistic-looking data. This option features multiple data masking techniques and algorithms to ensure randomization while maintaining the original nature of the data and preserving referential integrity. This option also includes specialized, built-in content and rules for common sensitive fields like name, address, social security number, credit card number and telephone number.

Fully integrated within PowerCenter's architecture, these data masking capabilities automatically leverage the core strengths of PowerCenter such as universal data access, rich transformations, high performance and a robust security framework.

Key Features

• Multiple techniques and algorithms to mask sensitive fields and produce realistic, fully-functional data, including:
  • Non-Deterministic Randomization. Replace a sensitive field with a randomly generated value subject to various constraints
    • Example: Generate a random date between 01/01/1910 and 12/31/2010
  • Blurring. Add a random variance to the original value
    • Example: Replace a sales amount with a random value but within a 5 percent range of the original value
  • Repeatable Masking. Maintain referential integrity by generating values that are both repeatable and unique
    • Example: Replace the tax ID number 12-3454165 with 32-9843454 consistently
  • Substitution. Randomly substitute original values with false but realistic-looking values
    • Example: Substitute “John Smith” with “Glen Carter”
• Built-in methods to maintain repeatability and preserve referential integrity across multiple tables
• Fine-grained controls produce randomized output while also preserving the original data properties like width, format, range, etc.

Specialized, Built-In Rules and Content for Common Data Masking Scenarios

• Content for substituting name and address data
• Pre-packaged rules for special fields such as social security number, credit card number, and telephone number
  • Example: Generate a random social security number that is structurally correct but not actually a valid number
  • Example: Generate a random credit card number that maintains the issuer ID and checksum validation rule
• Sample mappings that demonstrate common data masking scenarios

Full Integration Across Entire Data Integration Platform

• Leverages PowerCenter connectivity to mask data from virtually all enterprise data sources such as relational, mainframe, unstructured, etc.
• Automatically harnesses all of PowerCenter's rich transformation capabilities to meet any data masking need
• Leverages the high security standards of PowerCenter to provide robust security for the data masking solution
• Seamlessly integrates into existing PowerCenter environments through a simple plug-in

Benefits

Reduces Risk of Data and Compliance Breaches
One of the common reasons for data and compliance breaches is the exposure of sensitive information in non-production environments such as development and test, which may be offshore or outsourced. The Data Masking Option reduces this risk by de-identifying sensitive, private information, and providing fully functional data for such environments. This option includes sophisticated techniques and algorithms that completely obfuscate the original data. Fully integrated within PowerCenter, this option leverages PowerCenter’s high security standards to provide enterprise-grade security for the data masking solution.

Reduces Development Costs
Creating de-identified data in non-production environments isn’t an easy task- especially when there are large databases with hundreds of interdependent tables. Forrester Research estimates that it takes anywhere from four to six months to create a complete data masking solution by hand. With this pre-packaged option, organizations can reduce development efforts by utilizing the specialized, built-in rules and content for common data masking scenarios. Because this option is seamlessly integrated within PowerCenter, developers can quickly come up to speed and also leverage built-in connectivity, reusability and transformation capabilities for building the data masking solution.

Accelerates Time to Market
Project slippage often occurs when “dummy” data is used in the development and test environments. While using of dummy data protects privacy, it doesn’t accurately reflect the real production data. The Data Masking Option features robust capabilities for creating fully-functional, production-like data that retains the original data’s inherent properties, such as format, width, and range. This helps IT teams develop and deliver successful applications that conform to specifications with high fidelity and accuracy, reducing project risk and accelerating time to market.

Product Literature

Data Masking Option Datasheet
PowerCenter Brochure