Use Pattern Search for GDPR
You can manage the GDPR provision that requires you to ensure that files with protected information have not been shared inappropriately by searching for sensitive information and reviewing who has accessed it.
- Quickly search using built-in pattern identifiers including e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and credit cards
- Use templates to search for complex patterns such as license plate numbers, driver’s licenses and national identification numbers, which are different across countries
In FileCloud Server, on the Admin Portal, this is called PII Search (for Personally Identifiable Information search)
Searching for protected information is only available to administrators on the Admin Portal. FileCloud users do not have access to PII Search on the User Portal or from any other client.
You can only use this feature if you have installed an Enterprise License.
First you must enable content search to search within the contents of files.
Setting up content search for documents
Index Managed Storage
In order to search documents for information, you must first index them.
- Create a new index
- Check the status of an existing index to see if the number of files managed is the same as the number of files indexed
- Update an existing index to add only the files that have not been indexed yet.
Index Network Folders
Unlike Managed Storage, network folder files exist outside of FileCloud and therefore changes occurring in the network folders might not be propagated into FileCloud.
Monitoring such changes are important in the following scenarios:
- Faster searching
- Content Search
- Automatic Realtime Syncing of Network Folders
- Pattern Searches for GDPR
For these scenarios, you must to index network folders and keep them indexed as files and folders change.
- To index network folders, the FileCloud Helper service is required
After you enable PII Search, a new section is displayed called Manage PII Patterns. In the Manage PII Patterns section, you can:
Add new patterns
Edit existing patterns
- Search for patterns
Remove patterns you won't need
The list of patterns you configure here is shown on the Federated Search screen in the Advanced options dialog box as options to choose from.
A pattern contains the following information:
Regex is short for a regular expression. This is a special alphanumeric string used to describe a search pattern.
If you need to create a new pattern or edit an existing one, use the following table to understand the Regex format used by FileCloud.
| Name | Input Type | Length of Input | RegEx Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Description | Identifies the type of protected information |
|
| [Type]{Length} |
Numerical Example | U.S. Social Security Number | 0-9 (can contain any number 0-9) | 3 (for the first number) 2 (for the second number) 4 (for the third number) | [0-9]{3}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{4} 012-34-5678 |
Letter example | Poland Passport | a-zA-Z 0-9 | 2 letters (followed by) 7 numbers | [a-zA-Z]{2}[0-9]{7} ME0123456 |
To enable and configure PII Search:
Open a browser and log in to the Admin Portal.
From the left navigation panel, click Settings.
On the Manage Settings screen, click the Content Search tab.
On the Content Search tab, after Solr Configuration, check the Enable PII Search checkbox.
- To add a new pattern to the list, in the Manage PII Patterns section, in the top right corner, click Add.
- To edit an existing pattern, in the Manage PII Patterns section, select the pattern and then click the edit icon (
). - To remove an existing pattern, in the Manage PII Patterns section, select the pattern and then click the delete icon (
). - Click Save.