Each type of Masking Rule (Crypto, Substitution, Shuffle, Insertion) is designed to perform a different function. The available options are designed to complement that function. Thus different (and appropriate) choices will be visible when configuring different rules. For example, a Substitution type rule can have the option of choosing a Data Set whereas a Crypto rule provides only options to set the encryption key.

What the Tabs in the Options Panel are used for

Data Set

Data Set options are available only to Insertion and Substitution rules. The Data Set option indicates which type of data will be inserted or substituted into the specified table and column. Once the Data Set has been selected for the rule, the panel to the right of the Data Set window will fill with further options specific to the selected Data Set.

A Sample Data Masker Data Set Options Panel

In the example above, the Invalid VISA Credit Card Numbers Data Set has been selected and the panel at the right contains specific options regarding the formatting of this credit card number. Detailed information regarding the available Data Sets can be found on the Data Sets help page.

WHERE Clause

The WHERE Clause option is only available for Substitution type rules and is used when the substitution is to be based on a specific criteria.

A Sample Data Masker WHERE Clause Options Panel

For example, if a Substitution rule was to be applied to the FIRST_NAME column of the EMPLOYEE table the relevance of the column could be preserved by substituting female and male names where appropriate. All female first names in the table could be substituted by choosing the Random Female First Names Data Set and using a WHERE Clause of WHERE EMP_GENDER='F'. This would cause only the female employee records to be selected and masked. A separate rule using the Random Male First Names Data Set and a second WHERE clause would have to be used to perform a similar substitution on the male entries.

The sampling option can also sift the set of rows to be operated on by the substitution rule. The sampling is done on whichever rows are returned by the WHERE Clause option. If no option is set, the sampling will apply to all rows in the table. If a WHERE Clause option has been configured, then the sampling will apply only to the rows returned by the WHERE Clause. For example, if the table contains 1000 rows and the sample percentage is sent to 10 percent then 100 rows (at random) will have the substitution operation applied to them. If a WHERE Clause was applied which reduced the selected rows from the full 1000 to 500, then the sample percentage of 10% would cause only 50 of the selected rows to have the substitution operation applied to them.

UserDef Proc

User Defined Procedures are something of an advanced concept and are only available with Insertion and Substitution rules. The Data Masker performs the Insertion and Substitution by interactively generating and running a procedure in the Oracle schema associated with the rule. It is possible to have the Data Masker call a specific "user written" procedure instead of the internally generated one.

A Sample Data Masker User Defined Procedure Options Panel

User Defined Procedures are a complex subject please see the specific User Defined Procedures help file for more information.

Insertion Options

Insertion rules require specific information (specifically the number of rows to insert). This option will be available whenever you create a new Insertion rule or select an already created one.

A Sample Data Masker Insertion Options Panel

For more information please see the detailed discussion of the Insertion Rule options at the bottom of the About Insertion Rules help file.

Crypto Options

Crypto rules require their own specific configuration. This option will be available whenever you create a new Crypto rule or select an already created one.

A Sample Data Masker Crypto Options Panel

For more information please see the detailed discussion of the Insertion Rule options at the bottom of the About Crypto Rules help file.

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