Center for Clinical and Translational Science

In September 2011, the hospital’s senior staff started utilizing a new software tool to help ensure that sensitive information was not stored on unsecured hospital computer drives. Identity Finder, available for Mac and PC computers, scans hard drives, removable drives, and remote computers for social security, credit card, and bank account numbers, as well as other sensitive data that the user specifies. It automatically removes or protects data according to the user’s settings. “Not that long ago, people wrote their social security numbers on everything, even grant applications and CV’s”, states Project Manager, Ross Gillman.  People are better informed now about the sensitivity of listing personal identifiers. Protecting this kind of information is a university policy, as well as New York State law. Identity Finder assists users to comply with both directives.

Identity Finder was first introduced on campus in the fall of last year as part of Information Technology’s strategic information security initiative.  Deployment of the software within labs and departments that handle sensitive data was a key element in a three-pronged approach to: identify and secure sensitive and confidential university data; protect data from unauthorized access; and to remove or encrypt files that may exist unsecured on desktops, laptops, handhelds, or other devices.

As a data owner or custodian of university data, the hospital (like all university labs and departments that handle sensitive data) is responsible for taking proactive measures to reduce the risk of loss or exposure of these data through theft, malware infections, and inadvertent online disclosure. “The focus now is on sensitive data,” says Mr. Gillman about the hospital’s implementation of Identity Finder. “In the future, we will also focus on data protected under the HIPPA statute. We will use Identity Finder to create custom dictionaries that can be used to find combinations of data that may contain Personally Identifiable Information (PII), such as patient names with addresses, for example. We have a legal duty to keep this information confidential.  Identity Finder allows us to perform our duty more efficiently.”

Identity Finder is available to Rockefeller labs and departments, as well as hospital staff. To learn more about the strategic security information initiative, visit the IT Web site at http://it.rockefeller.edu/index.php?page=infosec.strategic.initiative. For more information about Identity Finder, visit the IT Web site at http://it.rockefeller.edu/index.php?page=infosec.idfinder, or contact Ross Gillman at ext. 8930 to discuss deployment in your area.