What is importance of database masking ?

hello eveyone,

I had never tried database masking in any of my database applications. Is it really useful ? What is the importance of database masking ? Can anyone provide the information about the same ?

thanks

Databases store private and confidential customer, employee and enterprise information. Credit card, SSN, financial and HR are some data kinds that need to be protected from external threats. On the other side, regulations are being formed to protect the same.

DB masking is one kind of security protection to the vital data that has to be hidden from user access. We must use EDMS solutions that take care of every database security issues. The development team has faced no security breaches so far, over the last 3 months.

A database in a computer system linked to a network is discloses.
The database is configured to store one or more organizations' data.
Each organization comprises one or more sub-organizations.
The database is partitioned into one or more virtual data islands, wherein each virtual data island stores data of an organization.
Each virtual data island is further partitioned into one or more sub-islands, wherein each sub-island stores data for a sub-organization.
There are one or more constituent records (CR) in each sub-island, each CR including one or more fields with data.
A sub-organization can share data from selected fields with multi-level organizations and other sub-organizations.

The database further comprises a masking means allowing the sub-organization, individual donors or volunteers to mask one or more fields in the CR, wherein data in the masked fields are not shared with organizations and other sub-organizations. The CR includes donor information, including donor names, addresses, amount of money donated, etc. The invention allows individual donors and/or the organizations to mask selected fields.

The main importance of Data Masking lies in ensuring Data Security.

Private and confidential customer and company data is often locked in production systems; credit card data, social security numbers, financial, HR data and customer lists are just a few of the fields that need to be secured. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and HIPAA are just the latest in a long line of privacy regulations that will directly impact organizations that fail to secure their corporate data. Solix Secure Test and Development enacts policy based archiving schemes where specific, sensitive data is masked according to pre-set algorithms before the database is released to the test environment.

Solix provides multiple methods for securing data before it is copied over to the non-production environment, which can be configured and executed based on the level of security needed, include :

• Encryption/Decryption
• Masking
• Substitution
• Nulling
• Shuffling
• Custom algorithms based on unique requirements