Spirion (Identity Finder) - Installing Spirion on Windows

Note: Screenshots were taken with Identity Finder, the forerunner of Spirion.  However, the instructions have been validated up to Spirion 12.5, the current version at the time of this writing.  The interface differs slightly in appearance.  

This document contains these topics:

• System Requirements for Spirion
• Installing Spirion for Windows
• Scanning with Spirion for Windows (with default settings)
• Uninstalling Spirion for Windows

System Requirements

Windows 10 or 11.

Installing Spirion

• Request a customer installer for your department from cybersecurity@cio.wisc.edu
  
• NOTE to IT Administrators: The Campus Software Library version is intended for unmanaged, personal installations. Please use the customized client installer provided to you by IT Security for managed installations with the Spirion Console. If you do not have access to the Console, or need to have customized installers made for your department, please contact the cybersecurity for assistance.
  
• For test installations, or any time you want to install on a single machine, simply run the custom installer locally.  On large deployments, it is best to use a tool such as BigFix.
  

Scanning the local machine with Spirion for Windows (with default settings)

To perform your first scan of your computer using the default scan settings, do the following:

1. Start Spirion client on the local machine.
2. Type in an Spirion profile password. This password protects the information that Spirion locates by encrypting it. The password must follow the campus password policy (at least 8 characters with at least 3 of these character types: lowercase letters, uppercase letters, digits, and symbols)

1. At the wizard screen, select "Start Search Now".

   
   

   The Spirion status window will pop up showing the progress of the search.

   
   

2. The default search does the following:
   • Looks for Social Security Numbers and Credit Card Numbers
     
   • In the currently logged on user’s My Documents folder, in your browser’s settings, and in your email (if the email is stored locally)
   • Searches for common file types, including looking in compressed files for those types.

When the search completes the Spirion Search Summary is displayed. At this point you have several options:

• Wizard - takes you through step by step for each file found and asks you what you’d like to do with the file (e.g shred, ignore, quarantine).
• Advanced - Takes you to the Spirion results where you can browse through the results and also remediate without the aid of the wizard.
• Save As - to save the results (securely) for reviewing later.
• Reminder - to set a time for Spirion to nag you that there are results that need to be resolved.

The Advanced option offers the most flexibility and options for reviewing the results of scans and deciding what it is you want to do with the restricted data (matches) found.

Uninstalling Identity Finder for Windows

1. Double click Add/Remove Programs from the Control Panel.
2. Choose Spirion and click the Remove button.
3. During the uninstall you will be asked if you want to remove user settings. Click “no” if you want to keep the results of previous scans and other settings you have configured in Spirion. If you don’t care about retaining previous scan or settings, go ahead and click “yes”.