Data Masking Task Sequence in Oracle 11g 

  
         You can clone the production database to a staging area, mask it, then export/

import it to another database before delivering it to in-house testers or external

customers. This is the most secure approach.

           You can clone the production database to a mask staging area, then make the

 staging area the new test region. In this case, you should not grant testers SYSDBA

 access or access to the database files. Doing so would compromise security. The

 masked database contains the original data in unused blocks and in the free list.

            You can only purge this information by exporting/importing the data to another database.

The following steps guide you through the data masking process. 

Ø  Review the application database and identify the sources of sensitive information.

Ø  Define mask formats for the sensitive data. The mask formats may be simple or

complex depending on the information security needs of the organization.

Ø  Create a masking definition to associate table columns to these mask formats. Data masking determines the database foreign key relationships and adds foreign key columns to the mask.

Ø  Optionally declare dependent columns not defined in the database but enforced

by the applications. Masking assumes it should perform the masking to honor

these additional constraints.

This requires knowledge of the application schema. Consult the application

documentation to identify the relationship between the tables and the columns

containing sensitive data to ensure complete coverage of your application data.

Ø  Save the masking definition and generate the masking script.

Ø  Clone the production database to a staging area, selecting the masking definition

to be used after cloning. Note that you can perform cloning using Enterprise

Manager, which enables you to add masking to the Enterprise Manager clone

workflow. However, if you performing cloning outside of Enterprise Manager, you must initiate masking from Enterprise Manager after cloning is complete. The

cloned database should be controlled with the same privileges as the production

system since it still contains sensitive production data.

After cloning, be sure to change the passwords as well as update or disable any

database links, streams, or references to external data sources. Back up the cloned

database or, at a minimum, the tables that contain masked data. This will help you

restore the original data if the masking definition needs to be refined further.

Ø  Verify if the masked data meets the information security requirements. Otherwise, refine the masking definition, restore the altered tables, and reapply the masking definition until the optimal set of masking definitions has been identified.

Ø  After masking, test all of your applications, reports, and business processes to

ensure they are functional. If everything is working, you can export the masking

definition to keep it as a backup.

Ø  After masking the staging site, make sure to drop any tables named MGMT_DM_

TT before cloning to a test region. These temporary tables contain a mapping

between the original sensitive column value and the mask values and are therefore

sensitive in nature.

During masking, Enterprise Manager automatically drops these temporary tables

for you with the default "Drop temporary tables created during masking" option.

However, you can preserve these temporary tables by unselecting this option. In

this case, you are responsible for deleting the temporary tables before cloning to

the test region.

Ø  After masking is complete, ensure that all tables loaded for use by the substitute

column format or table column format will be dropped. These tables contain the

mask values that table column or substitute formats will use. It is recommended

that you purge this information for security reasons.

Ø  Clone the database to a test region or use it as the new test region. When cloning

the database to an external or unsecured site, you should use Export or Import,

and only supply the data in the database rather than the database files themselves.

Ø  Provide the masking definition to the application database administrator to use in

masking the database as part of cloning production for testing.