What Is Sensitive Data Discovery

The Sensitive Data Discovery Module is an automated auxiliary tool provided by the Database Encryption System for assisting in identifying sensitive data within a database. When a discovery task is executed, this module scans the database data and the sensitive data fields stored in the metadata discovery table according to the selected discovery rules.

• Data Domain: The term "Data Domain" derives from the English word "Data Domain"; a specific type of sensitive data is referred to as a "data domain." For example, a telephone number is classified as a Telephone Number Data Domain, and an ID card is also considered a data domain.
• Discovery Rule: An algorithm used for identifying sensitive data; a data domain can have one or more discovery rules. For example, a name discovery rule could include both Chinese name discovery rules and English name discovery rules.
• Discovery: The process of identifying sensitive data across various databases or data stores using automated tools and built-in discovery rules; this is an automated process.
• Verification: This refers to the process of re-confirming the results of automatic discovery using expert knowledge; this requires human involvement. For detailed operational procedures, please refer to the following chapter.

The completion of data encryption, integrity verification, and dynamic data masking can all be performed without relying on sensitive data discovery.

Sensitive data discovery is a supplementary efficiency tool that can accelerate the sensitive data discovery process as well as the implementation of encryption and data masking workflows.