{"id":6249,"date":"2014-11-10T16:29:16","date_gmt":"2014-11-10T21:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/?p=6249"},"modified":"2025-04-25T10:00:19","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T14:00:19","slug":"introducing-iri-cellshield-protect-sensitive-data-excel-spreadsheets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/introducing-iri-cellshield-protect-sensitive-data-excel-spreadsheets\/","title":{"rendered":"The IRI CellShield Excel Data Masking Tool"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is an introduction to the IRI CellShield<\/a> data masking tool designed specifically for PII protection in Excel. Subsequent blog articles demonstrate the different functions in CellShield: data masking<\/a>, encryption<\/a>, and pseudonymization<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

Other IRI data masking tools also protect sensitive data in Excel, including IRI FieldShield<\/a> (which is also used for finding, classifying, or masking PII in databases or flat files) and IRI DarkShield<\/a> (for semi-structured and unstructured sources). See this article<\/a> comparing these tools to find the best way you can secure Excel spreadsheets through masking functions like data encryption for Excel files.<\/em><\/p>\n

Protecting sensitive data is certainly a top-of-mind issue for large retailers, medical facilities, and financial institutions. We have posited in Breached But Still Protected<\/em><\/a> that the threat of criminals trying to break protection barriers into data centers will only grow. And despite the number of security measures deployed, there will be even smarter attempts to breach the protected data, and the more layers of protection, the better.<\/p>\n

Financial institutions have social security numbers, account numbers, and transaction histories, that have to remain secure. Healthcare providers, and those managing their data, are required under HIPAA to de-identify key elements, or protected health information (PHI) at rest. And, retailers must protect credit card \/ primary account number (PAN) and credit details for their customers to comply with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS).<\/p>\n

Regardless of the size of the business, these companies have sensitive data they need to protect. They have many methods, structures, and software\/hardware options to store and control their data. Large companies deploy data warehouses and legions of monitored and protected databases — sometimes combined with encryption and key management appliances — to better safeguard their contents. Smaller companies may have only one database, or use common tools like Excel spreadsheets to manage their data.<\/p>\n

There are enterprise-class data masking products on the market, like IRI FieldShield<\/a>, that are designed to protect sensitive data in large data stores and databases. However, there has not been a robust, targeted data security solution for that data in Excel spreadsheets, until now.<\/p>\n