Dynamic de-identification of data

摘要

The present invention relates to a method, computer program product and system for masking sensitive data and, more particularly, to dynamically de-identifying sensitive data from a data source for a target application, including enabling a user to selectively alter an initial de-identification protocol for the sensitive data elements via an interface.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method of dynamically de-identifying sensitive data from a data source for a target application comprising:
identifying sensitive data elements within data from the data source and generating data definitions for data elements indicating the sensitive data elements via a discovery tool including a processor, wherein the data definitions include a plurality of properties for the data elements including a type of sensitive data contained within the sensitive data elements and determined by the discovery tool; determining, via a processor, an initial de-identification protocol for each of the sensitive data elements based on the properties of the data definitions of the sensitive data elements generated by the discovery tool and one or more predetermined rules, wherein the one or more predetermined rules specify a de-identification protocol for each sensitive data element based on the determined type of sensitive data contained in that sensitive data element; altering the determined initial de-identification protocol of a sensitive data element to a different user-selected de-identification protocol and at least one property indicated by the data definition for a sensitive data element via a user interface, wherein the at least one property includes the determined type of sensitive data; modifying, via a processor, the predetermined rules in accordance with the user-selected de-identification protocol and the altered at least one property to process subsequent data elements from the data source according to the modified rules to enable the de-identification protocols indicated by the modified rules to be applied to the subsequent data elements; and applying the corresponding de-identification protocols to the sensitive data elements, via a processor, to de-identify the sensitive data elements for the target application.