Which practice specifically helps protect sensitive customer data when it is displayed or logged?

Which practice specifically helps protect sensitive customer data when it is displayed or logged?

• A. Masking of sensitive fields
• B. Firewall configuration
• C. Backups
• D. Two-factor authentication

Answer: (A)

Controlling how data appears in interfaces and logs to prevent exposing sensitive details is what's being tested. Masking of sensitive fields does this by redacting parts of the data or replacing them with placeholders when shown to users or written into logs. For example, a credit card number might be displayed as 4111 **** **** 1234 or a social security number shown as ***-**-6789. This keeps the information usable for context (like confirming the last few digits) while preventing full values from being exposed, which reduces the risk of leakage from screens or log files and helps meet privacy and security requirements. Other options address different protections: a firewall guards network traffic rather than how data is displayed or stored; backups protect data availability and integrity rather than its display or logging; two-factor authentication strengthens who can access systems, not how data is presented or logged.

Controlling how data appears in interfaces and logs to prevent exposing sensitive details is what's being tested. Masking of sensitive fields does this by redacting parts of the data or replacing them with placeholders when shown to users or written into logs. For example, a credit card number might be displayed as 4111 **** **** 1234 or a social security number shown as ***-**-6789. This keeps the information usable for context (like confirming the last few digits) while preventing full values from being exposed, which reduces the risk of leakage from screens or log files and helps meet privacy and security requirements.

Other options address different protections: a firewall guards network traffic rather than how data is displayed or stored; backups protect data availability and integrity rather than its display or logging; two-factor authentication strengthens who can access systems, not how data is presented or logged.