First, what is PII? Some of you know the answer to this question – it’s the personally-identifying information that may allow an identity thief to steal your digital identity. Social security numbers, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and even some other digital data can count as PII. The University has been on a mission for years to eradicate PII on University computers. There is a risk involved in having it: if you have PII on your hard drive and your computer becomes compromised with a virus, that digital information is no longer secure on your system. It may be in the hands of the wrong people. When campus computers are found to be compromised, and then PII is discovered on those computers, the University (specifically, our campus) is legally required to spend whatever money it takes to inform people whose PII may have been exposed that their identities may be at risk. Even if your own social security number is found on your own assigned (compromised) computer, the campus is required to inform you.
There is a great tool that we have use of to discover and remediate PII. Identity Finder is installed on all faculty and staff computers on our campus. That software was recently updated, and now it’s even more sensitive to potential PII data than before. It is imperative that everyone regularly scan their systems to find what PII may be there, and then clean it. The software isn’t perfect – it will find data that are relatively meaningless and that represent false positives. Identity Finder can be trained through use to disregard those files that contain what you know for sure to be false PII. Let’s take a look…
First, go to your Windows button and select “All Programs.” There, you’ll find Identity Finder in the Identity Finder group of shortcuts. Select it.
If you’ve never created a profile for Identity finder before, the software will prompt you to create a password. This is important! You need this profile to train IDFinder not to find false positives. Did you create a profile before? Enter the password. If you can’t remember it, go here for instructions.
When the Identiy Finder Search Wizard appears, click the button labeled “Start Search Now.” You can start this in the morning, then allow it to work in the background all day while you perform other tasks on your system.
This is what the window looks like while the search is being performed:
Okay. The search is done. It’s time for you to do your part. The first time that you do a PII search, IDFinder may find a large quantity of files. In fact, because Identity Finder was recently upgraded, we’re certain that you’ll have more results than you may be used to. It’s okay. You can designate false positives so that the software no longer lists those files in subsequent searches. Look at the image that follows… I can see that the number on the right is obviously not PII by the context of the file. So, I put a check mark in the box next to the file (on the left), then go to the menu at the top and select “Ignore” -> “This Item Location.” I personally like to look down through the results, then put a checkmark next to ALL files that have false positives so that I can IGNORE them all at once.
What if it’s real PII? What if I look at the content of the file in the preview pane on the right and see that it’s a real social security number? There are two options. First, in some kinds of files like Microsoft Office Word documents, “Scrub” is an option. It cleans the PII information only out of the file and preserves the rest of the file to be used normally. Some files cannot be scrubbed, though. In these cases, the appropriate action to choose is “Shred.” This choice destroys the file with PII and makes a note in the log that it was dealt with in this manner. Using IDFinder to perform these actions is really important so that a record of how it was remediated is preserved.
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If you can’t remember your previous password, you can delete your profile and start over. This represents increased work for you – if you delete your profile, you lose the logs of files that you previously marked as false positives. The software will find those files again. Nonetheless, it’s important to use the profile for the next time, so if you can’t remember your password, follow these steps. When the password screen appears, click “Skip” and log in with a guest profile.
Go to your “Settings” button on the “Configuration” tab. Click “Settings.”
The Profile option in the Settings window is what you’re looking for. It’s the first in the list. Select “Profile,” then click the “Delete” button on the right, next to “Delete Profile.” Click through the prompts to finish the process, then close IDFinder. Launch the software again, and you’ll be prompted to create a new password for your new profile. Please try to remember this – it’s what allows you to train IDFinder.
This work may not be the best Friday fun, but it is of utmost importance. Thank you for taking the time to do it. As always, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact us at the ITS Helpdesk at 717-749-6300, or helpdesk@ma.psu.edu.
