Data is everywhere. It is running through the IoT, through the blockchain nodes and through the virtual reality platforms. While the permanence of data in web 3.0 is inevitable, management architects have to up their game and create smarter solutions for accurate & in-the-moment processing.

This gets even more important because the enterprises in the post-pandemic era don’t want to surrender to yet another crisis. Now, more data means a greater risk of exposure and thus the need to deploy more secure practices. In this post, we discuss data tokenization and its crucial role in the immersive era.

What is Data Tokenization? 

Tokenization explains a procedure in which authentic, hypersensitive data is concealed behind surrogate, insensitive identification symbols known as tokens for data security measures. The applications wielding security-sensitive data such as protected health information (PHI) or personal identifiable information (PII) leverage tokenization to ensure that non-exploitable values retain sensitive information for maximized mitigation of risks. Tokenization technology promises the fulfilment of the following business objectives:-

• Tokenization assists businesses in meeting the payment card industry (PCI) requirements which can be otherwise challenging and expensive to satisfy.
• Tokenization safeguards sensitive information from insider threats.
• Tokenization mitigates the risk of data exposure for enterprises embracing cloud technologies.

The worldwide tokenization market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13% from USD 1140.7 million in 2021 to USD 2709.9 million by 2028. The major factor driving its exponential growth is its capability to substantially slash the chances of data breaches.

Tokenization solutions are increasingly being sought-after by industries subject to regulatory, financial, privacy, and data security risks. The modernistic solutions mitigate the exposure, and dissemination of sensitive data and also ameliorate security posture and compliance satisfaction. 

Tokenization Use Cases

Narrowed Compliance Obligations

Tokens need not be assessed for regulatory compliance if tokens and applications leveraging tokens are adequately arranged. Data encryption might not eliminate platforms from the compliance scope or obligations.

Regulatory standards such as PCI DSS 3.2.1 still require assessment of platforms storing, distributing, or processing encrypted data whereas it is not required in the case of systems wielding and processing tokenized data.

A familiar use case comprises the replacement of PAN with tokenized elements to protect the data sent to service providers being screened under PCI DSS.  

Protecting Sensitive Data From Service Providers

By replacing security-sensitive data with unrelated tokenized elements, enterprises can protect sensitive information from the control of service providers who have no access to de-tokenized data. It is highly recommended for businesses that offer tokenization services to merchants, protecting cardholders’ sensitive data. They offer their customers a token to complete purchase transactions to save the exploitable data from misuse. 

Tokenization for Risk Reduction

As per a study by Ponemon Institute on data breach cost, the average cost of data violation is estimated at $3.86 million. The report values the cost of each stolen or lost confidential record at $148. 

Depending on how and where businesses implement tokenization, various risks in the workload threat model can be identified and minimized. The tokenization systems replace sensitive data with non-sensitive elements across the data lifecycle.  

Top-notch Data Tokenization Platforms

Imperva

Imperva tokenization and security provider leverages data masking and encryption techniques to blur and conceal the original data. They follow a holistic approach to offering security services. So, it secures your data wherever it resides – on system premises, hybrid ecosystems, or cloud-based storage. Besides data tokenization, they also assist IT and security teams to take a look into how data is held, accessed, employed, and transmitted throughout the organization. 

Their security strategy employs user behaviour analytics where any abnormal behaviour or dangerous activity is set apart and identified with the help of machine learning. The system is fortified with a data loss prevention feature that scans and scrutinizes data at rest, in motion, or located on endpoint apparatus. 

K2View

K2View follows a data-product approach, offering the most secure, scalable, and operationally efficient data tokenization solutions. The system works on a central mechanism for tokenization and de-tokenization of both operational and analytic workloads. The tokenization system stores the sensitive information uniquely and disseminates tokens for all business-specific values through its micro-database.

Each unit of the “micro-database” works as a “micro-vault” for a specific business entity (e.g. customer) and is uniquely encrypted with a 256-bit encrypted key to ensure paramount security. K2View maintains 10 million micro-vaults – one for every customer, facilitating security at the most granular level.

K2View is already popular for its data fabric architecture that stores business data at the partner level. This means that every customer data is stored in one micro-database while the fabric maintains millions of such micro-databases. 

TokenEx

TokenEx is one of the leading enterprise-grade tokenization systems offering customers digitally unlimited flexibility in how they access, secure, and store data. The tokenization company holds out thorough flexibility in offerings by seamlessly working with myriad data processing channels and keeping a processor-agnostic attitude alive.

Furthermore, TokenEx promises to tokenize all the data types businesses may potentially work with, comprising PHI, PII, PCI, or even unorganized data formats. The data tokenization platforms prevent exploitable information from internal threats and offer a single integration point for third-party partners.

TokenEx enables customers to securely and compliantly access, accept, disseminate and store sensitive data. The secure and flexible nature of services enhances the payment acceptance rates, cuts down the PCI footprint, and reduces latency for customers.  

Conclusion

So far we discussed the meaning & role of data tokenization and why it is important in the web 3.0 era. As we all know, businesses want to migrate as many processes as possible to the digital medium and those that are already working in the digital medium, want to adapt to advanced technologies. Amidst all this data is the pulse of this gigantic infrastructure and tokenization is the tool to ensure accurate, secure and quicker transmission.

How has tokenization helped you? Do share with me in the comments.