Transcript Document
IDENTITY FINDER Securing our important data THE UNIVERSITY OF SCRANTON IT Services • July 17, 2015 WHAT’S THIS ALL ABOUT? • Identity Finder is a program that allows computer users at The University of Scranton to secure important and sensitive information. • We may not even know this data is on our hard drives, in our email, or hidden in files. • Data such as Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, medical data, passwords, or anything else that can be used to identify a user, is called: Personally Identifiable Information (PII), or Personally Identifiable Financial Information (PIFI). CLASSIFYING UNIVERSITY INFORMATION When it comes to classifying the information we have on our computers, we can separate our data into three specific types of usage: • Public – information that can be released without much concern for security. • Confidential– information that can be damaging to the university or the user if it were to be stolen or released. • Restricted– the most important level of security needed to safeguard this data. INTRODUCING IDENTITY FINDER • Identity Finder is an easy-to-use, and customizable program that can search our computers and email for sensitive information that we may not realize is there. • It uses a familiar look using ribbons, commands, and icons that can quickly help us get our information secure. BEFORE WE BEGIN OUR SEARCH There are a few things we need to do before we begin our search for sensitive information: 1st - Open Thunderbird and purge unwanted or unneeded emails. 2nd – In Thunderbird, select the Local Mail folder, then click the File menu, and select Compact Folders. 3rd – Go to Royal Drive. Make a new folder that we’ll use later, to Quarantine any files we find that need to be placed in a secure location. OPENING IDENTITY FINDER • Double-click on the Identity Finder icon on your desktop. • When the program opens, initially, it will ask you to create a new profile password. This should be at least 6 characters, with 1 or more of those being numbers. Remember this password. It will be used to reopen Identity Finder and other commands, as needed. GETTING STARTED • Before you click the START Button on the Main Tab of the displayed Ribbon. • Click Configuration. Then select Actions from the list on the left. Scroll down to Options for Quarantine and click Browse button. Navigate to Royal Drive and select the folder you created, earlier . SCHEDULE YOUR SEARCH • Once you have set your configuration, you can also schedule when you want Identity Finder to search. On the Settings screen, select Scheduling from the list on the left. • Task Schedule will appear where you can choose options for your scan. RUNNING IDENTITY FINDER • Clicking the START button on the Main tab will begin the process of checking every file on your computer and your email. • This will take a while depending upon how much data the program has to scan. • A Status Window will show details of your search as it is running. WHEN THE SCAN HAS COMPLETED • A Search Summary box is shown which allows the user to select from either a step-by-step Wizard, or Advanced, which will take you to your Results screen. • Choose the Advanced button. ANALYZING YOUR RESULTS • Once you click the Advanced button on the Summary, the Results window will now appear. Here, you can analyze each instance that Identity Finder has found, for what it considers PII or PIFI. • Special Note regarding ThunderBird Email: Do Not use the SHRED tools in Identity Finder to delete ThunderBird Email. This can damage your files and result in lost email and attachments. Delete any unwanted Email in ThunderBird, PRIOR to launching Identity Finder. FALSE POSITIVES • Like all search software, there are many times when a search will render false positives. These are results the program returns to us, that match certain criteria programmed into it, to find specific information. • For example: when Identity Finder is looking for Social Security numbers, it is really looking for 9 numbers in a row with no letters between. Mistyped phone numbers are common. When a character is omitted, it fits the pattern that the program looks for, as a SSN. So it may return that as a match. • Should the program return false positives, you can choose to ignore them using the IGNORE command on the Main toolbar. Identity Finder will not return these again as a match in subsequent searches. ACTIONS WE CAN USE Actions TAKING ACTION WITH YOUR RESULTS • In the Results screen you have many options for securing your data. The Actions group on the Main tab includes these commands: Shred – if the file is no longer needed. Scrub – to remove some data, but retain the file. Secure – places file in password-protected vault. Quarantine – moves the file to a secure location. Recycle – sends file to Recycle Bin. Ignore – file is placed on “ignore” list. USING IDENTITY FINDER VAULTS • Under the TOOLS tab, we will find Identity Finder Vaults. These commands are: Password Vault – allows you to store and manage passwords, usernames, encrypted files, and other secure data. Add to File Vault – allows you to store additional files with password protection in a secure location. Open File Vault – allows you to open or decrypt a file in your secure folder. USING IDENTITY FINDER DIGITAL SHREDDERS • File Shredder allows the user to shred any file or folder, (including subfolders and files). This is the same as the SHRED command on the Main tab. • System Cleanup allows you to shred all of the Browsing Data, data in the Recycle Bin, and temporary files stored by Internet Explorer and Firefox. USING IDENTITY FINDER MISCELLANEOUS • Browser Security – a quick link to the security settings in Internet Explorer and Firefox. In Internet Explorer settings can be changed for AutoComplete, saving usernames and passwords, and whether to prompt for those. In Firefox, you can view or change whether to use a Master Password, to secure saved passwords, and whether to save data in forms and the search bar. • Other Tools – Allows the user to encrypt files using a program’s own methods, or to open zipped or compressed files. SAVING YOUR RESULTS • Once you have gone through your data and secured all the files, its time to save the results. You can save the results of your scans in the My Documents/Documents folder on your computer, or in another secure location, if you choose. • When saving a results file, it is suggested that you use your username and date for File name. • The file will be stored with an IDF (.idf) file extension. • When you attempt to re-open the file, you will be prompted for your profile password. FINALLY • Scanning for PII or PIFI is not a one-time event. You should regularly scan for sensitive information on a continuing basis. • On the Main tab, you can select Configuration and then Scheduling to automatically have Identity Finder run your scans. For further information, contact: Technology Support Center ext. #4357