Best way to mask and unmask data

Question

Hi Everyone -

I wanted to know if there is a way to mask data (for e.g. Employee IDs) in a consistent manner? For example i have 2 files with Employee IDs and i do a join between these 2 files so i would like to mask the employee IDs in these files but the mask should produce the same result for the same employee ID.

We need to do this as the files are used in an internal tool and we want it to process only 'masked' data so that the support team on the tool cannot see the employee IDs

Secondly, is there a way to un-mask this data as well to get it back to the original employee ids?

A

Felipe_Ribeir0 · Answer

Hi @AlterixNoob

It worked?

gautiergodard · Answer

Solution above should work well.

As an alternative, and if you have access to the intelligence suite of tools, you can do something using named entity recognition tool. Recently joined a NY User group where this was demo'd!

See video here, starting at minute 29. 2022 Q3 Alteryx NY User Group Meeting! - Alteryx Community

Felipe_Ribeir0 · Answer

Hi @AlterixNoob

You can use the MD5 hash to do this (the generated code will always be the same for the same sequence of charaters):

LEFT(MD5_UNICODE([EmployeetId]), LENGTH([EmployeetId]))

Some discussion that you can check out: Solved: Masking Data for Security - Alteryx Community

Since the Hash code is always the same for the same sequence of characters, you will always be able do to joins/recover the original Id.

Check the attached example.

If the provided answer helped you to solve the problem/was correct, please accept it as a solution :)

Thanks.

MD5Hash.yxmd