Data Protection Strategies

Geographic Restrictions

• Definition: Making policy decisions based on where data and users are located.
• Methods:
  • Determine location via IP address and subnet information.
  • Use geolocation for more accuracy, especially with mobile devices (GPS, 802.11 wireless databases).

Geo-fencing

• Process: Basing data access on geographic location.
• Implementation: Control access to data based on whether a user is inside or outside a designated area (e.g., corporate facilities).

Data Protection Challenges

• Data is distributed across various locations: laptops, mobile devices, networks, CPUs, and memory.
• Importance of data protection: Loss of data can threaten the existence of an organization.

Encryption

• Explanation: Converts plain text into unreadable cipher text.
• Process:
  • Requires proper implementation to encrypt/decrypt data.
  • Utilizes decryption keys.
  • Example: "Hello World" encrypted with PGP.
• Confusion: Significant difference between encrypted data and original data.

Hashing

• Definition: Representing data as a string of text (message digest or fingerprint).
• Benefits:
  • Cannot recreate original data from a hash.
  • Protects data integrity.
• Use Cases:
  • Password storage.
  • File integrity verification (e.g., Linux distributions).
  • Digital signatures with public key cryptography.
• Collisions: Occurs when different inputs produce the same hash; leads to abandoning weak algorithms.

Obfuscation

• Purpose: Make code difficult to understand while maintaining functionality.
• Usage: Protects code bases and can be used maliciously by attackers.
• Example: PHP code obfuscation.

Data Masking

• Purpose: Hide parts of data to protect sensitive information.
• Example: Credit card masking on receipts.
• Techniques: Shuffling, encryption, or asterisks.

Tokenization

• Definition: Replacing sensitive information with a token.
• Application: Used in payment methods with phones or smartwatches.
• Process:
  • Token is a one-time use, preventing reuse or replay.
  • No encryption involved, only token and original data are different.

Segmentation

• Definition: Separating data into smaller pieces across different locations.
• Benefits:
  • Makes data breaches more difficult.
  • Allows setting different security levels for each database.

Permission Restrictions

• Purpose: Control data access based on user authentication.
• Methods:
  • Secure authentication (password policies, additional factors).
  • Group and file permissions to limit user access.