Patent ID: 7797341

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of preserving characteristics of desensitized database information for use in database management system benchmarking, said method comprising: with a computer system: accessing at least one column of sensitive data from a database; sorting said at least one column of sensitive data into a sorted data representation; generating desensitized data by sequentially mapping ascending different values of said sorted data representation to ascending desensitized values generated according to a strictly monotone increasing randomly generated function, wherein a resulting plurality of mapped desensitized values are associated with said sorted data representation; unsorting said mapped desensitized values into a desensitized database according to sorting information related to said sorted data representation, wherein cardinalities of said at least one column of sensitive data are maintained within said desensitized database as a result of said unsorting; parsing a stored query to said database to determine if said stored query contains any predicates involving said at least one column of sensitive data; in response to said stored query containing a predicate involving said at least one column of sensitive data, desensitizing sensitive data of said predicate in an identical manner to like sensitive data of said at least one column of sensitive data, such that a desensitized query is created; and exporting said desensitized query for use in a benchmarking operation involving said database.