Since the business field has been adopting cloud computing lately, many businesses have shifted to cloud computing because of the various benefits it provides them with. Moreover, security is a very important thing to keep an eye on, especially in business applications which involve security of your data. Storing your data on premises can lead you towards data breaching attacks.
By using cloud services, you can securely develop and test various things without losing important data. So, how can companies provide their employees with easy and secure access to data without any risks of data breaches?
This is where Data Masking comes in. It is a technique which provides you with enough security when storing data in cloud. It works by using fake data (which looks real) in the place of real data before actually storing it in cloud. Companies and services like snowflake data masking allows businesses to take benefit from the cloud technology without compromising data integrity.
Benefits Of Data Masking For Businesses
Here are some of the benefits of data masking.
- It is way cheaper as compared to complete encryption of data, and also eliminates data theft threats from inside your business.
- Data format is safe when you mask it.
- You can safely share data with authorized people without the fear of exposing it to unwanted people.
- Can keep your data integrity safe while you can making the transition to cloud solutions.
- Keeps your business safe from data breaches, insecure systems, hijacking and other relevant threats.
Dynamic Masking
In this technique, the data is masked right when the request is made. Let’s discuss two types of data masking.
- Proxy Based Masking: In this type of data masking, a security layer is used between the user and the database. The query made by the user is forwarded to the security layer, and the layer then responds with masked values. This way, the data is perfectly secured without making any changes to the database.
- View Based Masking: This technique works by keeping both the production and masked version of the data in the same place. The users which aren’t allowed to view the production data will automatically be shown the masked version of data. You can set specific rules to share the data as required.
There is another technique which is in use these days, it is called Query Substitution. In this technique, the query make by the user is redirected to retrieve data from masked data storage. These queries are really effective and precise, and can help you retrieve data from remote locations easily.
The cloud infrastructure has recently been exposed to various security threats, but companies can’t afford to avoid using the cloud technology as it provides them with a plethora of benefits as well. Moreover, techniques like data masking is being developed to make the use of cloud technology safe and secure. This also doesn’t affect the flexibility and functionality of your cloud infrastructure. So, I’m a nutshell, data masking has helped in making cloud computing safer and more secure than ever.