Our Story
In 2001, a consulting contract with Canada’s national police force (RCMP), revealed the critical requirements needed for protecting sensitive information.
The RCMP enlisted our consulting services for a major PeopleSoft™ upgrade for their massive human resources database. Our testing standard demanded the use of real data for optimal database performance. As part of this project we made the standard request for a copy of the original database so that the database could be tested before going live.
The police force flatly refused this request as this would put the personal information for every member of the force in the hands of an external agency. They saw a potential security breach and planned to halt the project and bring it back in house. The RCMP spent long hours altering copies of the original data manually changing PII (Personally Identifiable Information) and replacing it with fake data, however, the test data was unreliable and incomplete. Many variations and alterations were required to get it right and extra costs continued to increase.
The experience got us thinking. Of course the security and privacy of the RCMP was critical. But what about everyone else? Banks, insurance companies, the health care sector, government agencies, educational institutions, private business – they all stored sensitive information. Across all of these industries, there was an exponential trend toward outsourcing, off-shoring, development and testing. An increasing amount of private information was in the hands of people who did not ‘need to know’.
We made the distinction between real and realistic data. Realistic data would keep private information safe and get the job done right. Recognizing this situation as an opportunity for innovation, Camouflage Software Inc. was born. The development of Camouflage®- our data masking tool - quickly de-identifies the information in your database. A database copy now contains realistic data that is fully functional and no longer vulnerable.
Today, global legislation requires organizations to protect their data against the threat of data theft. Organizations must comply with internal policies and auditing requirements pertaining to privacy and security.
Thankfully, the RCMP was ahead of their time. Now it looks like our timing couldn’t be better. The rest of the world is catching up – and Camouflage is ready.
Camouflage is insurance against the tremendous costs of data breach. It provides assurance to employees, suppliers and customers, giving them confidence that sensitive data is private and available only to those who absolutely need it!