Redact sensitive data

Guard Detect sends an alert when potentially sensitive data is detected. The alert includes an excerpt of the sensitive data to help you investigate. If you determine that the data is sensitive and should not be stored in Confluence, you can choose to redact the data directly from the alert, regardless of any space permissions or page restrictions.

When you redact, the sensitive data is deleted and replaced by a solid bar, and can’t be restored.What happens when data is redacted?

Redact from an alert

The data that will be redacted is highlighted red in the page excerpt. Anything that is highlighted will be redacted.

To redact sensitive data from an alert:

1. In Guard Detect, select Alerts from the header.

2. Navigate to a content scanning alert.

3. Review the highlighted sensitive data and investigation steps to determine if the data should be redacted.

4. Select Redact.

5. Confirm whether you want to also delete historical versions that contain the sensitive data.

The sensitive data will be deleted and replaced by a solid bar in the current version of the page, and any historical versions that contained the sensitive data deleted from the page history (if you chose that option).

1. Each instance of the sensitive data is highlighted. This is the text that will be redacted. A few words of context help the analyst determine if the data is sensitive.

2. When you select Redact you’ll have the option to also delete historical page versions that contain the data.

Considerations

There are a number of things to consider when deciding if redaction is the right remediation option for your organization. It’s just one of several ways you could choose to handle sensitive data.

• Once redacted, the text cannot be restored. The text highlighted in the alert snippet is the exact text that will be deleted from the current version of the page. It’s not simply masked or sent to the trash.

• If you choose to remove page history, any page versions that contain the sensitive data are deleted. This works the same as manually deleting a version from the page history. It can’t be restored, and any information about the deleted versions, including who edited, will be lost. A new version will be added for the redaction with a comment, and the Changed by column will show the administrator who performed the redaction. About Confluence page versions and history

• Guard Detect admins and organization admins are able to redact, regardless of any space permissions or page restrictions that prevent them from viewing or editing the content. A small amount of context is included in the alert to help them investigate, but they’re not able to view the full content if they do not have permission to do so.

• The user who published or updated the page will be notified that sensitive data has been redacted. The notification includes the name of the person who performed the redaction.

Troubleshooting

If the redaction request fails for some reason you can remove the sensitive data manually. Some of the reasons redaction may fail include:

• Too many instances of sensitive data on the page.

• Inconsistent formatting or the sensitive data is contained in a code block.

• The sensitive data was manually removed after the alert was sent.

Remove sensitive data manually

To remove sensitive data manually:

1. In Confluence, edit the page, and delete the sensitive data.

2. Publish your changes.

3. Select (more actions) > Page history.

4. Delete any page versions that contained the sensitive data.