Masking personally-identifiable information

Information in the logs can be personally-identifiable or sensitive information, for example, user names, email addresses, phone numbers that you may not want to disclose. Sensitive information should be exposed only to the authorized users from whom there is no risk of security violations. To avoid any potential security pitfall, you can mask the personally-identifiable or sensitive information.

In Adeptia Connect, when a user takes a look at the logs in the Dashboard Transactions  section, there are several information which may not be applicable or allowed for the user to see. Some of the sections where you find sensitive information include Repository, Execution Details, Context Info, and Reference column. 

Configuring masking 

You can mask sensitive information to ensure that they are not exposed to unauthorised users. There are two steps you need to follow to configure masking.

• Updating the XML files
• Enabling the View User Data property

Updating the XML files

Adeptia Connect contains two XML files wherein you can define properties and patterns to mask the sensitive details. You will find the two files finders.xml and mask.properties at …<ConnectServerInstallFolder>\AdeptiaServer\ServerKernel\etc location. Follow the steps below to update the files in the same order as mentioned here.

Updating mask.properties file

1. 1. Go to …<ConnectServerInstallFolder>\AdeptiaServer\ServerKernel\etc location.
   2. Open mask.properties file.
   3. Add the names of the fields which contain sensitive information (for example, Email, SSN, Phone) and need to be masked. The following examples explain how the field names should be added.
      Email=email@XXXX.XXXX
      SSN-spaces=XXX XX XXXX
      SSN-dashes=XXX-XX-XXXX
      USPhone-Formatted=XXX-XXX-XXXX

   4. Save the file. 

Updating finders.xml file

1. 1. Go to …<ConnectServerInstallFolder>\AdeptiaServer\ServerKernel\etc location.
   2. Open finders.xml file.

   3. Add a set of code here for the fields you have defined in the mask.properties file. The following example illustrates what and how should be the code.

      <finder>
      		<name>Email</name>
      		<pattern>\b[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@([A-Z0-9.-]+)\.([A-Z]{2,4})\b</pattern>
      		<enabled>true</enabled>
      	</finder>
      	<finder>
      		<name>SSN-spaces</name>
      		<pattern>[0-9]{3}\s[0-9]{2}\s[0-9]{4}</pattern>
      		<enabled>true</enabled>
      	</finder>
      	<finder>
      		<name>SSN-dashes</name>
      		<pattern>[0-9]{3}\-[0-9]{2}\-[0-9]{4}</pattern>
      		<enabled>true</enabled>
      	</finder>
      	<finder>
      		<name>USPhone-Formatted</name>
      		<pattern>[\()\.]*[0-9]{3}[\)\ \-\.]{1,2}[0-9]{3}[\-\ \.][0-9]{4}</pattern>
      		<enabled>true</enabled>
      	</finder>

      Wherein:

      1. name - Name of the field whose value you want to mask.
      2. pattern - Pattern in which the masked information will be visible to the user.
      3. enabled - The property to be set to true if you want to show that information as masked.
   4. Save the file.

Enabling the View User Data property

View User Data property is available on Define Standard Entities Permissions window which comes in course of creation of a role by an authorized user. If you clear this View User Data check box, the users with this role will not be able to see the sensitive information which you have masked in the two XML files discussed above. By default, this property is enabled.

Log details impacted by masking

When you enable masking, the following sections are impacted and they will not display the details which you were able to see before masking. 

• File names under the Reference column will be masked. 
• In Transaction execution details, the links View Source Data and View Repository will not be visible. 
• The Repository option under the Action menu will be hidden. 
• The Context Info sections under the Action menu will display only the details which are not masked.
• The sensitive information in some of the fields in the EDI logs is also masked for unauthorized users. For more details, visit this page.

 The masked information in these sections will be shown as per the pattern defined in the mask.properties file.