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Status Not under consideration
Workspace Knowledge Catalog
Created by Guest
Created on Apr 29, 2025

RELATED IDEAS

Restore Data Masking using salts in IBM Knowledge Catalog

The deprecation of the functionality to support data masking using user-specified salts in IBM Knowledge Catalog on Cloud Pak for Data v5.1.0 has raised significant concerns among our healthcare customer base and new customers. This proposal outlines the impact of this change and suggests the reinstatement of the deprecated functionality.

The removal of user-specified salts in data masking significantly affects the operations and data privacy protocols of our customers. These customers rely heavily on the ability to apply specific salts to each Data Production Rule. This capability is crucial for ensuring that anonymized datasets accessed by different groups or projects remain segregated and secure. Without this feature, there is a risk of data crossing between various research groups, and the potential for individuals to be reidentified by combining data from multiple data virtualization views or Presto queries.

Given the sensitive nature of the data handled by our healthcare customers, maintaining robust data security protocols is more than essential, it is a requirement that is being covered by IKC on CPD 5.0. The ability to use user-specified salts in data masking is a key component of these protocols. Its removal compromises the security and privacy standards that our clients expect and depend on.

Accordingly we propose the reinstatement of the ability to use user-specified salts in data masking within IBM Cloud Pak for Data.

Needed By Quarter
  • Admin
    Hari Gopinathan
    Jul 2, 2025

    Thanks for reaching out and sharing your feedback on the reverse masking feature. We truly appreciate your input and your commitment to enhancing IKC's capabilities.

    We want to provide some context on our decision regarding this feature. The reverse masking capability was intentionally deprecated in our December 2024 release (version 5.1.0). This decision was made after careful consideration and is rooted in our fundamental commitment to upholding the highest standards of data privacy.

    While we understand the operational need to unmask data in certain use cases, the ability to reverse masking fundamentally conflicts with a core principle of data security: Integrity and Confidentiality. The primary goal of data masking is to create an irreversible, de-identified copy of your sensitive data. The existence of a "reverse" function, even with access controls, introduces an inherent risk, suggesting that the data is only temporarily hidden, not truly protected.

    Allowing the reversal of masked data creates a potential vulnerability that could lead to the re-identification of sensitive information. As your partner in data governance, we believe that accepting this risk would be a departure from our commitment to providing you with the most secure and trustworthy platform.

    Therefore, we will not be re-introducing the reverse masking feature.

    We understand this may impact some of your workflows. Our team is ready to help you explore alternative, secure methods to achieve your data analysis and testing objectives.

    We appreciate your understanding and continued partnership as we strive to ensure our application remains a benchmark for robust data privacy and security.

    Reply

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