The data breaches of 2014 have had long-lasting impacts on the way our campus addresses data security and IT policy. Much of that work is happening, or has happened, behind the scenes, but ultimately, it requires active cooperation of the end-user data stewards: namely, the faculty and staff who must use data of all types in their daily work.
One of the first tasks to assist us in that stewardship role is to identify if we are storing sensitive data on UMD owned computers, especially that which we may no longer need, and if so, to also provide the tools to handle it appropriately.
Quoting from DITs website (it.umd.edu/IdentityFinder/):
Identity Finder is an application that searches a computer for sensitive information such as Social Security Numbers and credit card numbers. It also provides a way to remediate such information once it is identified (by scrubbing the sensitive information from files or by securely deleting them).
Additional details on installation and remediation have been sent out by email, but please feel free to contact us if you have any questions at edtech@umd.edu.
This will undoubtedly not be the last disruption we must deal with as UMD reviews and updates its policies and procedures, and many of us may have to adjust our methods and mindsets, at least to some degree. The good news is that with every change, our systems become better equipped to protect the very data we need to get our jobs done.