Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP)Cloud Data SecurityHard
A multinational corporation uses a cloud-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that processes highly sensitive employee data. To comply with various global privacy regulations, the corporation needs to ensure that specific fields within the database (e.g., social security numbers, bank account details) are never stored in their original, readable form in non-production environments like development or testing. However, cross-referencing and data integrity must be maintained. Which data protection technique is best suited for this requirement?
- AAnonymization
- BTokenization
- CFormat-Preserving Encryption (FPE)
- DReferential Integrity
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: C. Format-Preserving Encryption (FPE)
Format-Preserving Encryption (FPE) encrypts data while retaining its original format and length. This is crucial for maintaining database schema, field lengths, and sometimes even referential integrity in non-production environments where the data needs to look and behave like real data but not be readable.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Anonymization irreversibly removes identifying information, which might break functionality requiring some form of original data structure or cross-referencing.
- B. Tokenization replaces sensitive data with non-sensitive tokens, which often changes the data format and length, potentially breaking applications expecting specific formats.
- D. Referential integrity is a database concept that ensures relationships between tables are valid, not a data protection technique itself for sensitive data.
Format-Preserving Encryption (FPE)
A type of encryption that transforms plaintext into ciphertext of the same format and length as the original plaintext. This is particularly useful for protecting sensitive data in databases or applications that rely on specific data formats and lengths.
- Ciphertext retains original data format and length.
- Useful for legacy systems and databases.
- Allows applications to function without modification when sensitive data is encrypted.
Memory trick: FPE Preserves Form, Protects Privacy.