At GRT Corporation we extend our thanks to everyone who attended our presentation on Data Masking at the Milwaukee Tech-Security Conference on November 3, 2011. Thanks also to everyone who visited our booth during the event.
The challenge of data security is growing, not shrinking. "Big Data" means that the sheer volume of data is growing enormously. IBM recently estimated that it doubles every eleven hours. At the same time, growing public awareness and concern means that regulatory compliance requirements for data security are also growing.
Data is not just at risk from hackers and thieves. Some of the most serious data security risks are posed by routine business operations and practices. Complex business applications may be buggy and non-secure. Maintenance, development, and training activities all require working with realistic data, and can lead to inadvertent exposure of confidential information.
Effective, easy-to-use tools for protecting confidential information are available. Data Masking is a powerful protective measure based on a simple, elegant principle: Sensitive data is replaced with valid but harmless substitute data before the information is passed through the security firewall. Using # symbols in place of names or account numbers is a familiar example of basic Data Masking in action.
The full Data Masking involves discovery, or identifying your sensitive data, the masking process itself, and subsetting, which minimizes the amount of data at potential risk of exposure. Put Data Masking to work as an integral part of your information security policy.
