Social Security Number (SSN) Protection
Auburn University has proposed a policy aimed at protecting social security numbers of employees and students. The new policy will apply to all SSNs regardless of storage location (PCs, servers, paper forms, file cabinets, etc.) The AU Administration has not formally adopted the policy yet but is expected to do so before the end of August 2008. Compliance will be required within five months following adoption. [ View the Proposed Policy ]
The information provided on this web page currently focuses on electronic storage. Information regarding paper storage will be added as it becomes available.
Scan Your Computer for SSNs
The Spider scanner program scans your computer for potential SSNs and reports the results to you for further action. (By default, the program also scans for potential credit card numbers. AU's Sensitive Data Policy prohibits storing credit card numbers on desktop and laptop computers.) While the scanner program is fairly accurate, false positives are not uncommon. You will need to review your results carefully to determine which files truly contain SSNs. Select the Windows or Mac version below.
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Windows Version
Installing Spider
Click here to download the software. If using Internet Explorer, click Run in the File Download window to install the software. If using FireFox, save the file to your Desktop, then double-click the downloaded file to install the software. Once the software installation begins, follow the prompts until it is finished.
Running Spider
- Click the Windows Start button, then All Programs, then Spider3, then spider_3.0.exe.
- The default settings will scan your My Documents folder, which does not include your Desktop or other areas on your local disk where you may store files. To scan all your local drives, click Configure, Settings, and the Scan Options tab. Check the box for Scan all local drives. Click the Save button and close the configuration window.
- Click the Run Spider button to begin scanning. The Spider window will minimize to your taskbar until the scan is complete.
Viewing Results
Results are displayed when the scan is finished. The log viewer window will show the path for each file suspected of having a SSN. When you click each file entry at the top of the window, additional information will be displayed at the bottom. Click the Hits button to view the exact line or string in question. Click the Run button to open a particular file for viewing or editing. Typically, you need to clean only files under C:\Documents and Settings and any other files that you recognize. You do not need to clean files in the paths listed below.
Files and paths to ignore:
- All files under C:\Program Files
- All files under C:\Windows
- All files under C:\Intel
- All files under C:\Novell
- All files under C:\Firewall
- All files under C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings
(Where username is your AU username)
Common file types that may need cleaning include Microsoft Office files (.doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt), PDF files, and text files (.txt). You should open each suspected file separately to confirm if it contains a SSN.
To clean a file, either edit the file to remove the SSN or delete the file entirely.
Once you have cleaned the files, empty your recycle bin and run Spider again to confirm that your system is clean.
Additional details about configuration and usage are available in the Spider Documentation.
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Mac Version [ Download Spider Beta for Mac OS X ]
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The Spider scanner program was developed at Cornell University and is used under the GNU General Public License. For assistance with the information on this page, contact the ACES-Ag Information Technology Unit at 334-844-9660 or helpdesk@acesag.auburn.edu.
This page last updated 7/23/2008.
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