Chris Unwin describes a classification-driven static data masking process, using SQL Data Catalog to classify all the different types of data, its purpose and sensitivity, and then command line automation to generate the masking set that Data Masker for SQL Server can use to protect this data. Read more
Grant Fritchey explains the core rules and features of Data Masker, and how you go about using them to mask columns, so that when the data is used outside the production system it could not identify an individual or reveal sensitive information. Read more
This article will explain how to import the data classification metadata for a SQL Server database into Data Masker, providing a masking plan that you can use to ensure the protection of all this data. By applying the data masking operation as part of an automated database provisioning process, you make it fast, repeatable and auditable. Read more
What if you have several people in the team who are responsible for data security across your databases, and they need to work together to develop and maintain the data masking configurations, which must then be applied consistently as part of an automated provisioning process? How should they do it? The solution turns out to be simple: source control. Read more
Grant Fritchey shows how to adapt a data masking process, for address data, so that it incorporates knowledge of the data distribution in the real data. The result is fake address data, with an accurate distribution, for use in development and testing work. Read more
Grant Fritchey provides a simple way to create fake address information that still looks real. The compromise is that it uses random data distributions and doesn't maintain any correlation between postal codes, states and cities, so won’t accurately reflect the real address data. Read more
Grant Fritchey shows how to use Data Masker to create fake credit card data that not only looks like the real thing, but also has the right distribution, so will act like it too, when we query it. Read more
Chris Unwin explains how SQL Provision can create copies of multiple databases, each masked consistently, and deliver them as a group. This is useful when, for example, you are working with a Data Warehouse that contains several cross-database relationships. Read more
Chris Unwin explains the basic approaches to anonymizing email addresses, and shows how Data Masker can generate realistic email addresses, based on faked names, and even retain the correct distribution of email providers. Read more