Sensitive Data

Summary: Information about tools for scanning to discover sensitive data.

Sensitive Data Intro
Sensitive Data Discovery Tools

What is Sensitive Data?

The term sensitive data applies broadly to information for which access or disclosure may be assigned some degree of sensitivity, and therefore, for which some degree of protection or access restriction may be warranted. Unauthorized access to or disclosure of information in this category could result in a serious adverse effect, cause financial loss, cause damage to the reputation of the University and loss of confidence or public standing, constitute an unwarranted invasion of privacy, or adversely affect a partner, e.g., a business or agency working with the University. *

To ensure sensitive data is not where it need not be, there are several tools to assist in locating possible sensitive data. No tool can determine conclusively what is or is not sensitive data, but it can quickly aid in revealing potential sensitive data.

* Sensitive Data explanation adopted from the University of California, Santa Cruz Confidential Data definition

Sensitive Data Scanning Tools

This list provides some of the common tools that can be used to scan computers for sensitive data. (The order of this list is not intended to provide any ranking, each tool below may provide different results.)

Note that while these tools are useful for scanning for sensitive data, there is always the possibility of returning false positive results. Be sure to verify results returned by any tool for validity.

For those tools listed below that use regular expressions, OIT can provide a preconfigured list useful for scanning for sensitive data.

Spider
Tool for finding sensitive data, also allows use of custom searches through the use of regular expressions.
senf
Java tool from the University of Texas designed to look for Social Security Numbers and Credit Cards.
PowerGREP
Commercial application that can be used for finding sensitive data, through the use of regular expressions.
Identity Finder
Commercial application that can be used to find sensitive data, as well as providing other functions such as file encryption.

Top of Page