Sensitive Type

A Sensitive Type is used to detect sensitive information in PK Protect. Different Sensitive Types are data elements within databases that indicate or comprise of private and confidential information. This information must be protected from unauthorized access to safeguard the privacy or security of an individual or organization. Detection is performed on a database, to locate this sensitive information within it and the scan is based on the Sensitive Type parameter.

Various Sensitive Types can be used in combinations or as singular entities to detect where sensitive information is stored in a data source. Some examples of such sensitive data are, Credit Card numbers, Social Security numbers, Addresses etc. PK Protect houses several Sensitive Types to detect sensitive information suited to various scenarios. PK Protect’s capability to create new Sensitive Types, furthers the flexibility and accuracy of detection. Creating a new sensitive type is discussed in detail under further sections.

The function of a Sensitive Type is to facilitate and serve as the basis for protection and detection of sensitive information. Sensitive Types can be defined as singleton, dependent or composite entities. These have been described below:

1. Singleton Sensitive Type
   
   A standalone Sensitive Type that is capable of being uniquely identifiable by its description is defined as a Singleton Sensitive Type. Detection of a Singleton Sensitive Type is based on the Sensitive Types’ characteristics and is independent and unrelated to any other data within the data source.
   

2. Dependent Sensitive Type
   
   As the name suggests, this is a Sensitive Type that is dependent on another. For example, there is a good chance of finding a credit card number in the same row as a phone number, this can be used to define the dependency between the sensitive information. A simple relationship can be established in such a scenario, by using the Detect if Found with option when creating a new Sensitive Type.
   

3. Composite Sensitive Type
   
   A family of Sensitive Types that have compound dependencies on one another can be termed as a Composite Sensitive Type. Contact information, for example, consists of many such data points, i.e., addresses, phone numbers, area codes, fax numbers etc., and there a very good possibility of detecting these in the same row. A composite sensitive type in PK Protect can be defined using the feature to Group different Sensitive Types when creating a new Sensitive Type.