Data masking protects sensitive information!
Cyberattacks on businesses and public authorities highlight just how vulnerable personal data is. Intelligent data masking can protect confidential information and significantly reduce the consequences of potential data breaches.
Cyberattacks, ransomware and data breaches are posing increasing challenges for businesses. In October 2026, the international fast-food chain KFC made the headlines after the ransomware group ‘The Gentlemen’ claimed to have attacked the company. No independent confirmation of an actual data breach has yet been provided. In Germany, however, documented security incidents at the online retailer asgoodasnew and within the Berlin city administration show just how quickly personal and business-critical data can fall into the wrong hands.
Data breaches in Germany: Millions of customer records and government information at risk!
In March 2026, the German online retailer asgoodasnew fell victim to a cyberattack. According to consumer advice organisations, around 1.8 million customer accounts may have been affected. The information that may have been compromised includes names, addresses, email addresses, order histories and encrypted passwords.
Public institutions have not been spared either. In August 2026, a cyberattack on parts of Berlin’s administrative networks resulted in large amounts of data being copied and subsequently published. Among other things, this included personal information relating to administrative staff and, potentially, members of the public.
Such incidents show that unauthorised access to IT systems is not the only problem. What matters most is what sensitive information attackers can actually obtain and subsequently misuse.
Data masking reduces the consequences of a cyberattack!
Traditional security measures such as firewalls, access controls and encryption remain indispensable. But what happens if attackers bypass these protective mechanisms and gain access to stored information?
This is where data masking comes in. Sensitive information is specifically anonymised, pseudonymised or replaced with protected substitute values. This allows data to continue to be used for many operational purposes without exposing the original personal information everywhere.
This is particularly crucial in development, testing, analysis and cloud environments. When production data sets are copied, additional potential points of vulnerability arise. Early masking can prevent these copies from unnecessarily containing confidential information.
IRI FieldShield and IRI DarkShield: Automatically detect and mask sensitive data!
With IRI FieldShield and IRI DarkShield, JET-Software offers powerful solutions for automated data masking across a wide variety of data sources.
IRI FieldShield protects structured information in relational databases and files. This includes, for example, customer master data, account numbers, addresses and other personal identifiers. Supported methods include pseudonymisation, tokenisation, encryption and format-preserving encryption (FPE).
IRI DarkShield extends data masking to semi-structured and unstructured information. This includes PDF documents, Office files, images, JSON and XML data, as well as NoSQL databases.
Using intelligent search methods, regular expressions and AI-powered detection, sensitive content can be automatically identified and specifically protected.
Via the data management platform IRI Voracity, organisations can even combine these functions with data integration, data classification and other data protection processes!
GDPR and data protection: minimise risks even before a data breach!
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data. Data masking supports, in particular, the principles of data minimisation, confidentiality and data protection by design.
This enables organisations to reduce risks when personal data is required for software development, test data management, business intelligence, cloud migration or AI applications.
The key factor here is choosing the appropriate masking method: whilst effective anonymisation is intended to permanently remove identifiability, pseudonymised data generally remains personal data and is therefore subject to the GDPR.
Protect data before a data breach occurs!
The incidents at KFC, asgoodasnew and the Berlin municipal administration highlight the importance of a comprehensive data protection strategy. Whilst the alleged attack on KFC remains unresolved, the confirmed German security incidents demonstrate concrete risks for companies, public authorities and affected individuals.
Although data masking does not prevent every cyber attack, it can ensure that compromised data sets reveal significantly less sensitive information.
With FieldShield, DarkShield and Voracity, JET-Software supports businesses and public sector organisations in the secure processing, provision and use of confidential information across heterogeneous IT environments.
After all, effective data protection does not begin with a cyberattack, but with the targeted safeguarding of the data itself.
Efficiency meets experience: For more than four decades, our software solutions have been supporting companies in data management and data protection – technologically leading, reliable in productive use and applicable across all industries.
In use since 1978: Numerous well-known companies, service providers, financial institutions and state and federal authorities are among our long-standing customers.
Maximum compatibility: Our software supports both classic mainframe platforms (Fujitsu BS2000/OSD, IBM z/OS, z/VSE, z/Linux) and modern open system environments such as Linux, UNIX derivatives and Windows.