Search Files

Files are the most common source of data breaches. Too often do employees unintentionally save sensitive information in files in an unsecured format. Even if organizational policies state otherwise, employees often resort to convenience and accidentally leave files on their desktop or file share without the proper protections.

Identity Finder searches files for sensitive information. Identity Finder is capable of searching every single file type. For common file types, Identity Finder has its own special technology for opening and parsing the file. For less common file types, Identity Finder leverages the Windows IFilter installed on the local machine. For unknown file types, such as a proprietary file format developed by an organization, Identity Finder will perform a text extraction and search any readable characters for sensitive information.

By default, Identity Finder only searches files that commonly contain sensitive data. This list of commonly searched files includes compressed files, such as ZIP, tar, rar, and many others. Users may modify this setting though and increase the search breadth to every single file type, including music and image files that do not typically contain sensitive data.

Identity Finder’s search history enables intelligent searching of previously searched files. Rather than repeating a search on a file, Identity Finder first confirms the file has been modified since the previous scan. Using this search history, Identity Finder can greatly expedite the time in which a complete search is performed.