IBM develops screen masking s/w

HAIFA, ISRAEL:IBM Research - Haifa recently announced that it has developed software that more hides sensitive or personal information that might otherwise appear on the computer screens of unauthorized personnel.

When refined and fully developed, this technology -- dubbed MAGEN (Masking Gateway for Enterprises), might help organizations better comply with privacy laws, and lessen the vulnerability of information to theft.
This is the latest in a string of proofs-of-concept developed by IBM Researchers designed to preserve privacy, said a press release.

In the course of developing the MAGEN proof-of-concept, IBM applied for at least two U.S. patents, including one for unique ways of manipulating images, and one for scrambling words.

MAGEN treats information on the screen as a picture, and relies on optical character-recognition technology to determine which on-screen fields need to be blanked out or replaced with random values. It does not change the software program or the data itself -- it filters the information before it ever reaches the PC screen -- and does not force companies to create modified copies of electronic records where information is masked, scrambled, or eliminated.

The solution can be deployed in any environment where screen images are delivered -- no matter which operating system, application, or protocols are used, said the release.

"MAGEN's screen masking approach eliminates the need to painstakingly tailor 'data masking' solutions to specific environments," said  Haim Nelken, manager integration technologies at the IBM's Haifa, Israel Research Lab.

He added that the bottom line is faster performance, simpler database security, and reduced costs for protecting sensitive data.