Obfuscating the Database

Background

When providing backups to the LemonEdge Support, you may be in a position where you do not want to share any sensitive information. For this very reason LemonEdge has an 'Obfuscate' command. Obfuscate will turn your data into gibberish, so any sensitive information is lost.

WARNING

BACK UP YOUR DATABASE AND DO NOT USE THE LIVE SYSTEM.

This a dangerous command that will render your data useless.
Consult with technical users or the LemonEdge team before actioning anything in this guide.

You will need to connect to your Azure Database copy via LemonEdge. Please see instructions here on connection the the DB via the LemonEdge Desktop client.

Parameters setup

Button Setup

1. Open Architecture
2. Roles
3. Click the Admin line in the Roles section to bring up the Admin section
4. Admin view
5. Select section you’d like to put the Obfuscated Fields button. Typically goes on the Open Architecture menu.
6. From the Menu drop-down (green hamburger), select +Add Item
7. Select Obfuscated Fields from Item list in Menu Item section.
8. Save
9. The button is now saved within the system but not UI.
10. Refresh All
11. Button now available for use in UI

Obfuscation Parameters

If you select add standard string fields, LemonEdge will add the following:

The above defaults contain the key fields for the main objects of the system. Object Entities covers  Issuers, AIV’s, Blockers, SPV’s, Funds, Partners, Partner terms, Lots (alias Instruments).

If you feel other fields should be added, then feel free to do so above – let me know if you think they should be part of the “standard” and I’ll add them.

A lot of text fields are left unhcanged, as the system would be unusable if all the config/queries/etc were renamed. None of those things have client sensitive data.

Observations: Securities might be added to the list of entities for which name are obfuscated as it sometimes reflect the name of the Issuer.

You may need to add your own custom objects to this list too.

Running the task

Once you’ve saved the above you can run the task:

LemonEdge will force you to jump through multiple warnings that this is irreversible and will be run on the live database you’re connected to!

So, the process should be:

1. Backup the db
2. Ensure all users are out
3. Run the task
4. Backup the obfuscated db
5. Send the obfuscated db to us
6. Restore the system from the original backup
7. Connect the services again

You’ll also need to tick both these options after the warnings:

Results

LemonEdge will run through all of the objects and properties that you selected, and fill them with random strings. The resulting data will look similar to this: