The Importance of Securing the Test Data Management Processes
When generating full-sized application database clones for application testing, many IT organizations face the issue of provisioning additional storage. Enterprise class business applications need several copies be made to support test data management processes such as patch, test, QA and training. As most companies make 6-8 full size clones for every production application, there is a lot of waste in storage. There is also the potential of exposing sensitive application data to the test environment.
Ensuring the privacy of clients’ data is a key requirement for most organizations, and the cost of failing to protect sensitive customer data can be very high. The use of unaltered production data in the testing process presents a number of risks. Test environments are not physically as secure as production systems. Sensitive data could for example be downloaded to laptops which are subsequently stolen. Employees could misuse sensitive information such as credit card details and engage in fraudulent activity. The drive to outsource and offshore application development and testing work means that organizations will have little control over who gets to see the test data.
Private and confidential customer and company data is often locked in production systems. Credit card data, social security numbers, financial, HR data and customer lists are just a few of the fields that need to be secured. With numerous concerns around data privacy mount, organizations are finding themselves revisiting their policies around test data. Customer data and company confidential data from production are unsuitable for use in test environments and should be substituted with data that is masked or generated using homegrown or commercial tools. With successful data masking tools. policy based archiving schemes and specific, sensitive data is masked according to pre-set algorithms before the database is released to the test environment. This way data is protected even in less secure environments. Enterprise Data Management Software or EDMS Test Data management solutions brings the efficiencies of automation to the formation and management of database clones. By making available central test data management for application testing, it applies best practices to the process.
Production systems are often protected by an elaborate and definitive security system, with multiple layers of specified access controls for various features, functions and information contained within the system. The use of production data for testing data management has the potential to undermine this established security process.
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