How Secure is your Unstructured Data?

Structured data is typically identified as coming from a relational database, where the data is arranged in specific rows and columns inside a table.
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Semi-structured data will usually be in a loose arrangement. The data might be arranged in rows, but could have different column lengths. It might contain tags or elements to identify the fields.

Unstructured data is just that — data with no defined grouping. This is sometimes referred to as ‘free-form text’. Common file types include DOCX, JPG, and PDF.

In general, there are two main reasons to mask and protect your enterprise data:

1. Regulations and compliance: Heavy fines and penalties may be applied if you fail an audit or don’t comply with a regulation. A security breach or incident does not need to occur if it is discovered that you are out of compliance. Apart from financial costs, brand and company reputation can also be negatively affected. Laws, rules, and regulations are only going to tighten, so protecting your data will not only help to prevent data loss but potentially mitigate non-compliance to any applicable regulatory requirements.

2. Data breach or incident: A data breach could occur when someone either deliberately or inadvertently steals or releases data outside an organization. An example is when a contractor has their laptop stolen, which could contain sensitive production data loaded into a spreadsheet for analysis. This information can have immense value and is often sold for value or shared to help negatively affect an organization's reputation.

Although XDP’s primary focus is to mask sensitive data contained within unstructured and semi-structured files and repositories — it can also mask data in structured databases as well.

‍Structured: DB2, Oracle, and SQL Server fields can be masked. These can be BLOB, CLOB, XML, or free form text fields. Other databases that leverage JDBC/ODBC connectivity can also be masked. And for databases not directly supported, XDP can even leverage the database systems’ unload/export utilities.

‍Semi-structured and Unstructured: XDP works with a multitude of types of files. Any text-based files, such as JSON, XML, and CSV, can be masked. It can also mask Microsoft Office documents, PDF, and image files (e.g. JPG).

XDP supports Windows and Linux operating systems. Versions 2.8.0.3 and earlier are native to Windows as they leverage ‘Dot Net’ technology. Newer versions support Linux and Mainframe USS systems.

XDP can easily scale up and out. By adding more memory and/or CPU power, the overall performance can be enhanced. Another solution is to simply add another server device to provide better scalability.

Yes. Depending upon the masking rule applied, XDP can replace like-for-like values. For example, it can replace a valid VISA card number with another card number, and a valid U.S. address with another valid U.S. address. Applying the same masking rule will ensure the new masked value is consistent regardless of where it resides.