Top 3 Benefits of Utilizing Data Masking

Top 3 Benefits of Utilizing Data Masking

by | Nov 28, 2022 | dataZense

In many ways, data is the lifeblood of a company. Through the use of customer data and internal information, a business can set themselves up for success and stand apart from the competition. However, that makes data a valuable thing that untrustworthy individuals want to gain access to. Read on to learn the top three benefits of utilizing data masking.

What Is Data Masking?

Data masking transforms information from sensitive information into a nonsensical, non-sensitive string of characters. For instance, “John Smith, 707 Main Street” may become “asdw g54Gep v35 54Yb tw90f.” This keeps the information safe even if it falls into the wrong hands.

The Customer Element

One benefit of using data masking is that it proves to your customers that you are trustworthy. Customers want to know that their private information will stay secure, and they’re willing to go out of their way to ensure that happens. If you don’t have credentials on your website that make potential customers feel safe, they will not want to do business with you.

The Compliance Element

You must meet certain legal requirements when working with sensitive information. Data masking and protection are not always something a company can utilize, but in many cases, they are legally required to maintain compliance.

Self-Protection

Data masking isn’t only capable of protecting customer information—it also protects your company’s sensitive data. Bad actors can seek out a business’s information in the same way they may look for customer social security numbers and credit card numbers.

When you want the best data protection for your company, come to ChainSys. We’re here to answer any questions you may have and will set you up with top-notch data masking software.

Now that you know the top three benefits of utilizing data masking, you can keep your information and that of your customers out of the hands of bad actors. Even if they gain access to the information, data masking will ensure they won’t be able to understand or use it successfully.

Differences Between Data Masking and Data Encryption

Differences Between Data Masking and Data Encryption

by | Aug 25, 2022 | dataZense, Smart Data Platform

When you search for data security, you probably come across terms like “data masking” and “data encryption.” Lots of times, these words can sound like nothing more than synonyms. In this case, these terms refer to different processes, each with its own merits. Read on to learn more about the differences between data masking and data encryption.

Data Masking

People sometimes refer to data masking as “data de-identification,” and that term describes the protection process well. Instead of keeping sensitive parts of data on display, data masking replaces these chunks of data with random values. Therefore, masking hides identifiers and makes data useless to bad actors.

The three main types of data masking are static data masking, dynamic data masking, and on-the-fly data masking.

Static masking saves the masked version in your original database and sends a backup to a new location. Dynamic masking keeps all your data inside other systems of your development environment, giving you on-demand access. Finally, on-the-fly masking uses a process called extract, transform, load (ETL) to store masked data in the development environment.

Data Encryption

Like data masking, encryption also turns data unreadable with algorithms. However, you can think of encryption as a code. If you have the key to the code, then you can read the data it hides. If bad actors figure out the key with enough force, they can also read the code. Decrypting data makes it vulnerable, so the best use for encryption is for data that doesn’t need to be functional, such as data in storage.

How They Differ

Should you choose encryption or masking when you’re looking for processes to help with data breach prevention? The best data security strategies employ both processes for different reasons. You should secure data that you and your team are actively using with masking, while it’s best to protect data in storage with encryption.

Now that you know the differences between data masking and data encryption, you should contact ChainSys for more information on data security.