Data Masking, also known as data obfuscation or anonymization, is a data security technique used to protect sensitive or confidential information by replacing original data with fictional, scrambled, or masked values while preserving data format, structure, and statistical properties for non-production or testing purposes. Data masking techniques include substitution (e.g. replacing names with pseudonyms), shuffling (e.g. randomizing data order), encryption, tokenization, format-preserving encryption, and dynamic data masking (DDM). Data masking helps organizations comply with privacy regulations (e.g. GDPR, HIPAA) and security policies, reduce the risk of data breaches, and prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data in non-production environments.
