Scrambling Extension

ARCAD-Extract can preserve data confidentiality, offering a scrambling function.

THE SOLUTION

The ARCAD scrambling feature can be used to scramble or “anonymize” certain data during transfers between environments.  This involves adding a simple call to a scrambling process as a line in the extraction process itself.

Since scrambling is a process that directly impacts data, it is necessarily functionally dependent on the applications to which it applies.  For this reason our scrambling feature is supplied in kit form, enabling rapid creation of scrambling functions tailored to specific security needs and data management rules.

The kit consists of:

1.  A pre-formatted ARCAD scrambling process (macro-command).  Variants of this process can be produced if individual applications have specific management requirements.   The process refers to files, and fields from files that are to be processed during the transfer.  If these are numerous, they can be more easily managed as lists of fields, and passed directly to the scrambling functions.

2.  A generic RPGLE program that can be tailored into any number of variants to support local scrambling needs and techniques.  Only a small number of lines will need to be modified if the proposed technique is not suitable.  The program is file-independent, taking any file or field from a file on entry, which are passed as parameters by the ARCAD process.  The program also centralizes and encapsulates the scrambling technique itself.

N.B.  This program makes use of copyright functions from ARCAD service programs.

3.  A specific compilation procedure.

THE ADVANTAGES

This feature is extremely easy-to-use, since the scrambling process is simply run on one or more libraries in order to “anonymize” the data of any referenced files found.

N.B.  Since scrambling is performed by member, the process fully supports multi-member files.