Which of the following should the database administrator do before giving the developers access to the environment?

A group of developers needs access to a database in a development environment, but the database contains sensitive data.

Which of the following should the database administrator do before giving the developers access to the environment?
A . Audit access to tables with sensitive data.
B . Remove sensitive data from tables
C . Mask the sensitive data.
D . Encrypt connections to the development environment.

View Answer

Answer: C

Explanation:

The database administrator should mask the sensitive data before giving the developers access to the environment. Data masking is a technique that replaces sensitive data with fictitious but realistic data, such as random numbers or characters, to protect it from unauthorized access or exposure. Data masking preserves the format and structure of the original data, but does not reveal its actual value. This allows developers to work with realistic data without compromising its confidentiality or compliance. The other options are either insufficient or excessive for this scenario. For example, auditing access to tables with sensitive data may help monitor and track who accesses the data, but does not prevent it from being seen; removing sensitive data from tables may compromise the quality or completeness of the data, and may not be feasible if there is a large amount of data; encrypting connections to the development environment may protect the data in transit, but not at rest or in use.

Reference: CompTIA DataSys+ Course Outline, Domain 4.0 Data and Database Security, Objective 4.2 Given a scenario, implement security controls for databases.