Mask Functionality in DS 4.2 SP 04

[former_member184566]

Intro

In my post SAP Data Services 4.2 SP4 New Features I highlighted some new functionality introduced in Data Services 4.2 SP04. One of the new functionality was the ability for Data Services to mask data. This blog focuses on how you can mask data.

The Data Mask transform enables you to protect personally identifiable information in your data. Personal information includes data such as credit card numbers, salary information, birth dates, personal identification numbers, or bank account numbers. You may want to use data masking to support security and privacy policies, and to protect your customer or employee information from possible theft or exploitation.

Data Mask Example

Here is an example of a very basic data flow with the mask being used.

We then on the input tab indicate fields to mask

Then fill in the options tab. For every field you want to mask you must duplicate the mask section. Then assign a field to each mask out section.

Then on the output tab choose the fields you want to output

Here is a sample of the masking by using View Design-Time Data button.

Conclusion

The masking option is a nice addition. Very welcomed. It however feels a bit incomplete. Many places we use masking here in South Africa is to mask credit card numbers, we however only mask for example the middle part of the credit card number. Currently this mask only allows you to say where to start from and it will then mask the remaining characters. So I would like to see an option to stipulate where to start and how many characters to mask.

Also I noticed that when the field names have spaces you get a few errors saying the mapping is not complete. Once I removed spaces in the fields I was error free.

Hope the above helps.

Thanks.