What is data masking?

Data masking is a form of data security law found in the state of Washington. Data masking is a process of creating a simulated or ‘masked’ version of sensitive data. It is used to help protect the true, sensitive data from unauthorized access, while still providing valuable information to authorized users. Data masking works by taking confidential, sensitive data and changing it into a version that looks like the original data, but is not the exact same. For example, a Social Security number may be changed to all zeroes or a random string of characters such as “XXX-XX-XXXX”. Data masking can also be used to help protect a company’s sensitive information from being leaked or used in a malicious way. For example, a company may use data masking to make production databases look like test databases, thus making it harder for hackers to access the company’s sensitive data. Data masking is also a way to protect a company’s intellectual property, such as source code and customer data, from being misused. By masking confidential information, a company can secure its intellectual property within its databases and prevent it from being viewed by unauthorized individuals. Data masking is an important form of data security law in the state of Washington, as it helps protect individuals and companies from data breaches, malicious attacks, and data misuse.

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