topic Re: pseudonimisation of sensitive data in SAS Viya

pseudonimisation of sensitive data

Freddy_m — Wed, 13 Jul 2022 14:30:17 GMT

Hello,

Has someone experience with pseudonimisation of sensible data in SAS tables.

Are there any macro's available, or interfaces with standard pseudonimisation tools?

Example: pseudomise social security number in a data file with individuals before it will be put available for statistical purposes?

We are using SAS VIYA 4

Thanks in advance

freddy

Re: pseudonimisation of sensitive data

gwootton — Wed, 13 Jul 2022 15:26:09 GMT

Perhaps a hashing function?

https://www.sas.com/content/dam/SAS/support/en/sas-global-forum-proceedings/2020/4838-2020.pdf

Re: pseudonimisation of sensitive data

Reeza — Wed, 13 Jul 2022 15:31:39 GMT

SAS Data Management Studio usually handles this, how are you ingesting data into Viya?

Re: pseudonimisation of sensitive data

sbxkoenk — Wed, 13 Jul 2022 15:36:27 GMT

Hello @Freddy_m ,

In general, I make a distinction between :

pseudonymisation,
anonymisation and statistical disclosure (statistical confidentiality)

Both topics are very important in the branch of statistics called "official statistics".
Think about EuroStat and their handling of access to microdata and personal data (personal data protection).

Anonymisation is a big effort and a matter of advanced statistics in itself.
Pseudonymisation is the easiest. It's basically string replacement.

You could for example replace strings with a sha256 hash value, but that is not readable by a human being.

You could also replace names (or strings) by cities or by a combination of two words in a list of 100
names / flowers / rivers / colors / seas / mountains / first names etc.

See also here :
SAS Programmer’s Guide: Essentials
Examples: Encrypt Variable Values
https://go.documentation.sas.com/doc/en/pgmsascdc/9.4_3.5/lepg/p0j7hkll5daa1bn1bbr7lvfqj4tt.htm

BR,

Koen

Re: pseudonimisation of sensitive data

Freddy_m — Fri, 15 Jul 2022 04:56:05 GMT

Thank you all for your quick reply, I will have a closer look at the hashing and encryption function links.

regards

freddy