DataVeil Features Overview
We would like to introduce some of the features of the DataVeil data masking software below.
Some points of difference between DataVeil and other data masking tools are also mentioned.
Intuitive
Ease of use has been a design priority. Your database schema is represented as both an Explorer Tree and diagrammatically making it simple to click on a field and select a mask.
Other masking tools may provide a GUI but often require you to manually search and enter table and/or column names which can become repetitive, laborious and impact on your workflow.
Preview Before & After Masked Values
You can preview original and masked values side-by-side without overwriting the original data.
This helps you confirm that your masks will generate the values that you expect.
Consistent & Random Masking Options
You can mask an original value consistently with the same masked value throughout the database and even across multiples databases. The same masked value will be used even on repeated and independent runs, i.e day, months or years later.
You can alter the determinism by specifying keys – on a per-mask basis and as a project default key. As an added security feature, every customer site license will generate different deterministic results – even when using the same keys as another site.
Random mode means that the masked values shall be random on each masking run.
Partial Masking to Preserve Statistical Distributions
Many of DataVeil’s masks support partial masking. The idea is to preserve a non-sensitive portion of the original value so that the statistical distribution of the original data remains the same after it has been masked.
For example, the Primary Account Number (PAN) mask allows the optional preservation of leading digits. Therefore, when masking credit card numbers you can ensure that the exact distribution of credit card issuers is maintained in the masked result. Other masking tools may require you to nominate how many of each type of credit card to include. This could not only lead to a false representation of what is in your Production data, but some issuers (which could be vital for testing) may be erased altogether.
Discovery
DataVeil's discovery capability helps find sensitive data using built-in algorithms for superior detection results. For example, suspected national identifiers and account numbers are validated for valid ranges and valid check digits to reduce false positives for more accurate results.
The user can also add their own detection pattenrs as regular-expression patterns.
The Randomize Mask
This is a very versatile mask that is useful for a broad range of sensitive data. It will replace alphabetic characters with alphabetic characters (preserving case), digits with digits, while preserving whitespace and special characters. Partial masking is supported so that you can specify what parts of a sensitive value are to be masked (or preserved). For example, suppose that you wanted to preserve the last 6 digits of all phone numbers. This means that country codes, area codes and formatting would be preserved, which maintains the statistical distribution of the original phone number data, and also the exact format of every individual phone number is also preserved. This enhances the realism of the masked data and is especially useful for testing. Other masking tools may require you to define a fixed format that will overwrite the original data formats which is usually undesirable.
National Identifiers
DataVeil has built-in support to generate national identifiers such as the US Social Security Number, Canadian Social Insurance Number and others.
Use Your Own Substitution Data
You can use your own data files as substitution data. DataVeil can use one or more columns from any standard CSV format file.
Note: DataVeil does NOT require you to prepare the CSV file in some specific way. i.e. Some masking tools may require you to insert a sequence number column, or remove unused columns, include or remove a heading row, etc.
Referential Integrity
DataVeil maintains referential integrity automatically for fields that have dependencies defined within the database (foreign keys). You can also add user-defined dependencies within a DataVeil Project. Even if there are no actual dependencies defined, DataVeil can inherently synchronize dependent values by using deterministic mode masking. Deterministic masking means that a specific sensitive value will always be transformed to a specific masked value – even if it is on another database and masked in a separate Run at a different time.
Many other features...
Extensible
If you have specialized masking requirements then you can write and include your own masking code within a DataVeil project file or call your functions on the DBMS. These can be written in the DBMS platform's standard SQL, such as TSQL for SQL Server or PL/SQL for Oracle.
Dependency Obfuscation
You can disable dependencies so that DataVeil can effectively re-organize parent-child relationships. This is useful to obfuscate strategically sensitive information while the aggregate results are preserved. For example, if you need to provide your sales volume data for review but wish to obfuscate which were the most lucrative sales locations then you could redistribute child sales records to different parent store locations. The aggregate sales results would remain the same.
Refresh & Migrate Projects
If your schema changes then you can use the Refresh feature to synchronize those changes into your project.
The Migrate feature lets you move your masks to a different schema. It can even migrate to a significantly different schema on a different DBMS – such as migrating an Oracle masking project to SQL Server or vice versa.
Automatic Execution Order
If you have masked fields that depend on other masked fields then DataVeil shall automatically determine the correct execution order.
Some other masking tools require you to explicitly define the required execution order.
Multiple Conditional Masks
You can define multiple conditional masks for each sensitive column. The first mask whose condition is satisfied shall be used.
Simple XML Project Files
DataVeil data masking Project files are saved as plain XML text files. This makes it very easy to incorporate DataVeil into your existing version control systems.
Simple to Install, Use & Maintain
An installation can be performed in minutes. For the most part, it is just a matter of unzipping the downloaded software file. There are no servers to install. No internet connection is required. This enables quick and easy installation in secure environments.
Fast
DataVeil is among the fastest data masking tools available.