What Is Data Masking and What Are Its Benefits?
Reading Time: 5 minutesData masking is like setting up a decoy. Attackers think they’ve gotten their hands on your data, but the joke’s on them.
Data is a digital currency. The more sensitive it is, the higher its worth. Cybercriminals have a reputation for accessing the most secure dataset, and they are unapologetic about it.
It’s about time you get creative in securing your data.
Data masking helps you mislead attackers into thinking they have made a kill while your data is secure in a separate location. Learn more about data masking and how you can benefit from it.
What Is Data Masking?
Data masking is the process of creating a fake or alternate version of your data for use in place of the original data. It’s a means of protecting the original dataset from compromise or attack while carrying out your duty with a copycat.
The data you create in data masking is inauthentic. The characters or numbers are fictitious. Although the values are different, an outsider can’t tell the difference between both data because they are similar.
How Does Data Masking Work?
Data masking is only viable in non-productive settings. Hence, it’s most helpful for conducting training, testing, and software development. Data masking works in different types and forms. Let’s look at some of them.
Data Pseudonymization
In data pseudonymization, you rename your data with a pseudonym. Instead of using the original name of the data, you come up with an imaginary name to shield its identity.
Data pseudonymization is one of the easiest forms of data masking. Not only is it reversible, it doesn’t require technical skills or conditions.
Data Encryption
Data encryption is the process of making data inaccessible without the decryption key. In this case, you use the encryption algorithm to mask the authentic data so that unauthorized users can’t access or use it.
To use data encryption for data masking, you encrypt the original and create a duplicate. The duplicate is what you bring forth and present to others in your course of work. Should anyone access the encrypted data where you kept it, it’s useless to them.
Data Anonymization
Data anonymization thrives on anonymity. You remove specific information that could make other people identify a dataset. It helps protect the privacy of the people or commodities the data set embodies without compromising its validity.
With data anonymization, users with ulterior motives will have a hard time connecting the dots between the data. It’s different from pseudonymous data because due to its absence of non-identifiers.
Tokenization
Tokenization is the process of replacing the original values of a dataset with random non-sensitive characters that look like the original. Since the token isn’t authentic, it’s useless to intruders who may want to use the data for malicious activities because it’s completely unrelated.
Lookup Substitution
Lookup substitution allows you to create a lookup table with alternative but unrelated values to the original data. It comes in very handy when you are dealing with sensitive data. Instead of taking a risk to showcase it, you substitute it with something that looks very much like it.
Shuffling
Shuffling is an effective way to retain the value of your dataset but hide its true identity. You do that by mixing up the various data so they are unorganized, losing track of their original sources or owners. The data sets could take on similar attributes but from different sources.
In data shuffling, you can choose the specific information you want to shuffle. If you are dealing with people, you could decide to shuffle their first names.
What Are the Benefits of Data Masking?
We all can’t be cyber experts who have advanced skills and technical know-how to secure systems. Cybersecurity is more attainable when it’s simple and comprehensive.
Data masking enhances cybersecurity and offers you the following benefits.
1. Improve Security
There’s no such thing as too much security. If anything, there are too many attacks. You need to heighten your security efforts. Data masking avails you more opportunities to secure your data.
Cybercriminals can’t steal or compromise what they can’t see. By keeping the authentic data in a secure location and using alternate data, you reduce the chances of intruders stealing, exposing or compromising it.
2. Prevent Insider Threats
People subconsciously associate cyber threats with external factors. The picture of an attacker is the bad guy in a remote location who is on their computer around the clock trying to hack systems. They neglect the fact that threats can come from within. And that’s often what hits the most because they don’t see it coming.
Data masking helps you prevent insider threats that could happen either intentionally or accidentally. If an insider exposes your masked data, you have nothing to worry about because it’s not real data.
3. Facilitate Data Sharing
When it comes to managing sensitive data, you can’t trust anyone. The more people you share it with, the higher its chances of exposure. This could put you in a very tight corner when you are working on a project that requires third-party input.
You would naturally be uneasy about sharing sensitive data with third parties. Your reluctance could hinder the workflow. Data masking makes sharing data easier as you don’t have to share the original information but a copycat. Third parties can work with what looks like the data without necessarily having the authentic data.
4. Regulatory Compliance
If you run a network or a web application where you store users’ information, you can’t shy away from complying with the regulatory requirements of data management. Compliance standards such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for online interactions and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) for payment transactions are some of the policies you must uphold.
Since you must always ensure the privacy and confidentiality of users’ data or risk getting sanctioned, leveraging data masking to enhance the privacy and security of the data in your possession is a win for you.
5. Ensure Data Accuracy
Data accuracy is a huge concern when it comes to the validity of your data analysis and implementation. When you continuously move your dataset from one location to another, there’s a tendency for it to be altered even when there are no malicious intentions. Unfavorable conditions in transit can jeopardize the accuracy of data.
Data masking allows you to keep your data at rest. While data at rest is not completely secure against threats, your capacity to contain the threats is higher compared to when the data is in transit. You can share and move the masked data around in doing your job, rest assured of the accuracy of the original.
Enhance Your Cybersecurity With Data Masking
The fewer people who have access to your data, the more valuable it is to you. Data masking enables you to maximize the opportunities regarding your data without exposing it to avoidable threats.
To get the most results out of data masking, you must keep track of your activities to avoid irreversible errors.
Reference: https://www.makeuseof.com/what-is-data-masking-and-what-are-its-benefits/
Ref: makeuseof
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