Securing Your Computer

What is phishing? Wikipedia defines it as "a form of social engineering, characterized by attempts to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business in an apparently official electronic communication, such as an email or an instant message. The term phishing arises from the use of increasingly sophisticated lures to "fish" for users' financial information and passwords."

What is phishing? Wikipedia defines it as "a form of social engineering, characterized by attempts to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business in an apparently official electronic communication, such as an email or an instant message. The term phishing arises from the use of increasingly sophisticated lures to "fish" for users' financial information and passwords."

These instructions are for scanning your Windows computer and any attached drives for Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and remediating scan results.

These instructions are for scanning your Macintosh and any attached drives for Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and remediating scan results.

Here are some of the most frequently asked questions that we have received about Personally Identifiable Information (PII) scanning and the Spirion software (formerly Identity Finder).

During scanning, Spirion for Windows creates a folder called IDFTmpDir. Spirion uses this folder for file extraction of items that it scans. If the Spirion process is interrupted or you must force-quit the process because it appears to 'hang' and stops responding, then files are left in the IDFTmpDir. These files should be deleted to avoid future issues with the scanning process.

Please follow these guidelines for proper disposal of computer, printer, copier and fax equipment that is no longer functional and needs to be disposed of. All Penn State-owned equipment must be disposed of through the proper channels so any data on the devices can be securely erased and the materials can be recycled.

Here's a quick reference sheet about Spirion (formerly Identity Finder) and what you need to do to remediate (securely shred or scrub) a document with PII.