The types of Masking rule are summarized below. Click on the link to read a detailed discussion of each rule type.

Summary of Masking Rule Types

Shuffle Rules

Shuffles the data in the column of a table (like a deck of cards) and leaves the other columns untouched.

Substitution Rules

Substitutes the data in the column of a table. As substitution data this type of rule can use any of the supplied Data Sets or User Defined Data Sets appropriate to the column type. This type of rule can also substitute based on a user supplied WHERE condition.

Command Rules

This type of rule is used to run user defined SQL statements within the target schema.

Cascade Rules

This type of rule is applied as a dependent rule on a substitution rule. It will synchronize the data in a column of second table with the data in the column being updated by the substitution rule. The information is synchronized between tables by specifying a join condition for the rule.

Crypto Rules

Encrypts (or Decrypts) a column of data using the Oracle DBMS_Obfuscation toolkit.

Insertion Rules

Inserts new rows into table columns. As insertion data this type of rule can use any of the available Data Sets appropriate to the column type.

The Masking Process
Once added to the Masking Set, no changes to the table contents will take place until the rules are executed. To run a Masking Set and execute the rules within it click on the Run the Masking Set button on the Data Masker Run the Masking Set tab.

While running, the Data Masker will execute each rule in a sequential process which activates each rule in turn. Each rule is processed in numeric order with Insertion type rules always executing first. The progress of the Masking Set run can be viewed in the Rules panel of Run the Masking Set tab.

Operationally the rule execution is quite straight forward. The effect is exactly what the rule and its options state. For example, a Substitution rule using the Random Last Names Data Set applied to the EMP table on the EMP_LASTNAME column would generate and substitute random last names in place of the existing last names. The substitution would continue until all rows in the table (or a subset if a WHERE clause option was specified) were updated with the new data. Commits happen at user configurable intervals (every 5000 rows is the default).

Important Note: Other than Crypto rules, once a rule has been run it is not possible to recover the previous data by running another rule. For example, once a Shuffle rule has been run, the data will be thoroughly scrambled and there is no way of "un-shuffling" it. To retrieve the original data the usual Oracle database restore procedures would have to be implemented. You must ensure that you know what each rule is intended to do before you run the Masking Set.

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