Working With Masks

An overview of the Masks tab in the Data Elements & Masks screen.

Masks are a pattern of symbols and characters, that when imposed on a data field obscures its actual value to the viewer of that data. For example, you might want to mask out characters from credit cards and Social Security numbers. Masks can obscure data completely or partially. For example, a partial mask might display the last four digits of a credit card on a grocery store receipt.

For more information about the Masks option, refer to the section Masks in the Protegrity Protection Methods and Reference Guide.

The following figure shows the New Mask screen.

New Mask Screen

The following table provides the description for each element available on the Web UI.

CalloutUI ElementDescription
1NameUnique name to identify the mask.
2DescriptionText describing the mask.
3Mask TemplateMask templates for masking the data.For more information about the mask templates, refer to Table 3-5 Mask Templates.
4Mask OptionsFollowing options are available to mask the data:
  • Mask character
  • Mask Mode
  • Selection of characters
5From Left / From RightSelect the text to be masked from left and from the right.
6Mask ModeIf the masking is in clear or masked.
7Mask CharacterThe character to mask the data.
8Sample OutputThe output based on the select template and mask mode.

The following table shows the different mask mode templates.

Mask TemplateMask Mode-ClearMask Mode-Mask
CCN- 6*4Template to retain six characters from left and four characters from right in clear.
For example,
123456******3456
123-12*1234
A123-1*******4-12
Template to mask six characters from left and four characters from right.
For example,
******789012****
******-****
******234-123****
CCN 12*0Template to retain 12 characters from left and no characters from right in clear.
For example,
123456789012****
123-12-1234
A123-1234-12*****
Template to mask 12 characters from left but no characters from right.
For example,
************3456
***********
************34-12
CCN 4*4Template to retain four characters from left and four characters from right in clear.
For example,
1234********3456
123-***1234
A123*********4-12
Template to mask four characters from left and four characters from right.
For example,
****56789012****
****12-****
****-1234-123****
SSN x-4Template to retain no characters from left but only four characters from right in clear.
For example,
************3456
*******1234
*************4-12
Template to mask no characters from left but four characters from right.
For example,
123456789012****
123-12-****
A123-1234-123****
SSN 5-xTemplate to retain five characters from left but no characters from right.
For example,
12345***********
123-1******
A123-************
Template to mask five characters from left but no characters from right.
For example,
*****67890123456
*****2-1234
*****1234-1234-12

Creating a Mask

The following procedure describes the steps to create a mask with the CCN-6*4 template with mask mode as clear.

Masking Support

The settings for masking output formats are applicable as per the following table.