Software Security Sensation: Ace the CSSLP and Elevate Your Career Path!

Masking is primarily a technique used to protect sensitive information by obscuring its original values while maintaining a usable form of the data. The benefits of masking typically include the protection of sensitive information, which ensures that data breaches expose less sensitive data and mitigate risks associated with unauthorized access.

Furthermore, masking contributes to basic data security by ensuring that confidential information cannot be easily obtained or used maliciously. Additionally, by obscuring the original data, masking effectively reduces the risk of data breaches since even if the masked data is intercepted, it does not reveal the actual sensitive information.

While it may have some impact on performance depending on the implementation, this aspect is not the primary focus or intended benefit of masking. The main goals are centered around enhancing security and protecting data privacy, rather than improving system performance. Therefore, when considering the goals and advantages of masking, improved system performance does not align with the core objectives of this technique, making it the correct choice as the option that is not a benefit of masking.