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Spirion: Overview and Usage Guide

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Overview

The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire has invested resources into a site license of Spirion, formerly Identity Finder, for usage on UW-Eau Claire owned computers.

Similar to the antivirus software installed on UW-Eau Claire computers that scans for viruses and malware, Spirion software can scan your computer or device for Personally Identifiable Information or PII. Some examples of PII include:

  • Social Security Numbers
  • Credit Card Numbers
  • Financial Account Numbers
  • Birth Dates
  • Passwords
  • Phone Numbers
  • Health Information

If Spirion finds this information, the software generates a report showing it found this information and at which location on the device the information is located. Note that Spirion by default will only scan the main hard drive of your computer that the operating system runs from.

For more information regarding Spirion, please visit their website at https://www.spirion.com/.

LTS Communication Process

If a department or unit at UW-Eau Claire would like to utilize Spirion to scan computers and storage devices for PII, Learning & Technology Services can help setup and configure the scans. If PII is found during the scanning process, the follow communication process will be followed:

  1. LTS staff contacts the faculty, staff or student explaining that data was found and sharing that information with them.
  2. LTS staff consults with the faculty, staff, or student and will suggest to either delete the information or consult on how to best secure and store the information moving forward.
  3. If the information is needed, LTS staff will suggest the appropriate storage location and coordinate with the faculty, staff, or student to setup the proper permissions to that storage, preventing unwanted access.
  4. LTS staff will help the faculty, staff or student move the information to that secured storage.

Using Spirion

  1. Go to the search bar on your computer and type “Spirion”
  2. Next click the blue Spirion icon or press enter Note: If Spirion does not appear after you search (as shown above) please email infosec.uwec.edu or the helpdesk.
  3. Next click “skip”
  4. A guest profile pop up will appear. Click “ok”
  5. Next click “Start Search Now”
  6. Next, a search will begin as shown below. You can click the “-“ symbol in the top left corner and continue to work while the scan runs in the background.

In-program Documentation

If at any time you need additional information on Spirion, you can contact the Help Desk in Old Library. You can also find information by accessing Spirion's in-program documentation. There are several ways of doing this:

On Windows 7/8, you can find the in-program documentation from the Start menu by navigating to the Spirion folder (Start>>Programs>>Utilities>>Spirion) and clicking Spirion Help.

Spirion Help

At the login and set up screens, click the Help button next to the Cancel button.
Help Button

If you are in Spirion, click the ? in the top right corner to bring up the Help document or click the Configuration tab and click User Guide.
User Guide