What is Identity Finder?
Identity Finder is a program that locates Protected Level 1 data in files such as Word, Excel, PDF, or email messages. In addition to locating Protected Level 1 data, Identity Finder can perform actions on locations that contain Protected Level 1 data. Such actions include the ability to delete (Shred), redact (Quarantine), and archive your results in order to protect yourself (or others) from identity theft.
What does Identity Finder search?
This tool will find and assist you with protecting Level 1 Protected Data (PII), or other data elements that can be used for identity theft. Such data includes:
- Social Security Numbers
- Credit Card Numbers
- Passwords
- Bank Account Numbers
- Driver License Numbers
- Dates of Birth
The types of files that Identity Finder searches include Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Adobe PDF, text files, web files and other common file types. Identity Finder also searches through compressed files, Exchange mailboxes (including attachments), Outlook profiles, and .pst files.
Such data can come from a broad range of activities and records including:
- Old Class Rosters
- Old Student Time Sheets
- Demographics data and records requested by federal agencies or professional organizations
- Human Resource Records
- Student Reporting
The Information Security Office recommends destroying any confidential information which is no longer needed, or moving such data to a folder location on the campus’s secure Box file server.
Where does Identity Finder search?
Identity Finder will search through specific folders on your computer's hard drive for Protected Level 1 data. These include, but are not limited to:
- Local user folders (Documents, Desktop, Downloads, Music, etc.)
- Web browsers (saved passwords, browser cache, favorites/bookmarks, etc.)
- Outlook email and attachments
- Windows Registry
Identity Finder will not search folders reserved by the Operating System, such as C:\Program Files or C:\Windows, as these are typically write-protected and require admin privileges to access.
Chico State and its employees are responsible for PII data for individuals that is collected and stored. If you have a question about the data you are storing, and whether you should be storing it, please ask your manager.
For future reference, our Quick Scanning Guide can assist you in launching, searching, shredding, ignoring, and saving results.