Format-Preserving Data Masking for Unknown Types
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional data masking techniques are not application-friendly, particularly when handling data elements with specialized formats, leading to errors and inefficiencies, and struggle with determining data types accurately, especially in cases with uncertain or misleading metadata.
Innovation Solution
The system employs format-preserving data masking that characterizes data elements using syntactic definitions, alphabets, and positional maps to maintain the original format and automatically discover data types, allowing for transparent and secure data processing without encryption, enabling immediate protection of newly discovered data objects.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional data masking techniques are applied, then data security is improved, but application functionality deteriorates due to format mismatches and processing errors
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies format-preserving encryption that transforms data parameters while maintaining the original format structure. The encryption process changes the data values to secure them, but preserves format parameters such as length, character types, and structural patterns, ensuring applications receive data in the expected format without functional disruptions
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates format-preserving copies of the original data through encryption. The masked data element is a copy that maintains the same format characteristics as the original, allowing applications to process the copied data as if it were the original, while the actual sensitive data remains protected
2Adaptability or versatility
If format preserving encryption is used, then application compatibility is improved, but the system becomes incapable of handling data with specialized format transform rules
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the data element into multiple components or positions, applying format-preserving transformation to each segment independently. This segmentation allows the system to handle complex specialized formats by processing each part according to its specific rules while maintaining overall format integrity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary masking process that sits between the original data and the application. This intermediary layer handles the format transformation rules and specialized requirements, translating them into format-preserving operations that maintain compatibility without requiring the encryption system to directly understand specialized format rules
3Reliability
If data masking is applied, then data protection is improved, but data type determination accuracy deteriorates due to uncertain or misleading metadata
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables the masking system to automatically determine data types and formats through self-service mechanisms. The system analyzes the masked data elements themselves to infer their original format characteristics, eliminating the need to rely on potentially inaccurate external metadata for data type determination
Data Source
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AI summary
A system, method and computer-readable medium for generating a data masking syntactic definition for a data element of an unknown data type, including generating one or more alphabets corresponding to one or more element member positions of the data element based at least in part on element members occurring at each element member position in a plurality of data elements of the unknown type, each alphabet comprising a set of one or more sequential element members that have occurred in the plurality of data elements at an element member position and generating a positional map describing a syntactic structure of the data element by mapping at least one of the one or more alphabets to each element member position of the data element.