SSN Rescan and Purge Redux Pat Burns, VPIT January 29, 2008
Jan. 24, 2008 SSN Scan Redux 2 Status Initial exercise was successful at removing thousands of files with millions of SSN’s and CCN’s, and substantially reduced the risk to our constituents of identity theft However, the process was far from perfect, it relied on attestations from individual users, and lacked “checks and balances” Recent events indicate that we may still have tens of thousands of SSN’s on CSU systems
Jan. 24, 2008 SSN Scan Redux 3 We Need to “Fix” this Problem Provost/SVP directive, at the recommendation of the VPIT Rescan and purge, using a new process with checks and balances, that reasonably assures removal of virtually all SSN’s on our systems Invasive/intrusive process is approved, but only for the purposes of identifying sensitive data that need to be purged The ‘default’ is to err on the side of protection, i.e. removal Refresh “scan and purge” periodically, at least once per annum
Jan. 24, 2008 SSN Scan Redux 4 New Process System administrators will be responsible for Rescans of systems now using new, improved spider tool Getting lists of target files to their users for their inspection/action Determining that files with SSN’s, CCN’s and other sensitive information have been removed Rescan by February 22, 2008 Verify that files with sensitive information have been removed Default is to remove files to off-line storage Reporting to the VPIT that the new process has been completed satisfactorily
Jan. 24, 2008 SSN Scan Redux 5 Other Steve Lovaas will work with IT staff on spider implementations Multi-user servers are the primary target at this time Extend to individual systems, based upon judgment Begin immediately Deadline for sysadmins reporting back to the VPIT is Feb. 29
Jan. 24, 2008 SSN Scan Redux 6 Reporting Format For all web and multi-user file servers Report numbers of files “Before” – found initially on the next scan “After” - after users have remedied “Final” – after sysadmin actions Discussion, if “final” number is not 0