Identifying patterns with ControlPoint

Monday, July 01, 2019 10:00 AM

Identifying patterns with ControlPoint

 

One of the most useful and powerful functions that ControlPoint brings to organisations is the ability to scan and identify patterns in your data, via the artificial-intelligence-based analytics tool from Micro Focus, called IDOL.  With IDOL, elements within unstructured data such as Personally Identifiable Information (PII), project numbers, Credit Card numbers, and more, can all be discovered.

IDOL supports a text and numeric pattern matching capability called 'Eduction'. Eduction is used to train IDOL to identify different kinds of data that match a predefined pattern mask.

As an example, credit card numbers should not be recorded, and the discovery of documents that do containg credit card numbers can be an important process to undertake. To discover documents that do contain credit card numbers, a typical pattern mask could be created to detect any instance of a credit card number. IDOL can be configured to use an eduction pattern of a 16 digit number, or any other pattern that could be used to identify a credit card number.

Content identified as containing a credit card number will have an internal field marked, and recording the discovered credit card number data. ControlPoint can then train an IDOL category to recognize documents containing credit card numbers, and then further combine that with conceptual training to locate documents that should contain personal data.

Compliance

Organisations are regularly being monitored for compliance with various governmental regulations, especially regarding the control and dissemination of personal information.

The ability to automatically identify and take appropriate actions against documents containing such information allows the end user to be removed from the process of reviewing documents for these credit card numbers.

Automation of these actions provides a repeatable, defensible set of Information Governance processes.  However, ControlPoint can also allow the review and approval process to be performed manually, before automated actions occur, where preferred. This allows for a final, human review by the nominated people, which can often be more desirable, especially for such potentially sensitive information.

Auto-Classification

Continuing this example, we have set up ControlPoint auto-classification and policy execution to identify documents with potential credit card numbers, that reside on non-secure file shares. These documents are to be reviewed by Corporate Security, and then migrated to Content Manager for secure storage.

When ControlPoint is searching and analysing the content of documents, it can recognise patterns within those documents, and flag them for review.

Some of the useful patterns out of the box are:

• Credit Cards
• Personal Identifiable Information (PII)
• Tax File Numbers
• ABN's
• Addresses
• Emails
• Names
• plus many more included patterns

Organisations can also create their own custom patterns specific to their business, such as:

• Project Numbers
• Property Numbers
• Job Numbers
• Application Numbers
• Customer Numbers

Real world example

In one recent example, a customer found over 1300 credit card patterns within documents stored on their non-secure Network Drive.

ControlPoint discovered the offending documents, their location, and the users who placed them there. �Once this security issue was identified, and with the strategic assistance of WyldLynx, the relevant corrective action was planned and implemented, utilising ControPoint to move the documents into Content Manager, and achieving PCI DSS compliance.

This video demonstrates just how ControlPoint can identify patterns in your data, how easily this can be implemented in your organisation, and have the results moved across to Content Manager.

Keep an eye on the WyldLynx blog for future articles, including our upcoming feature on the Secure Content Management Suite from Micro Focus, the 3 products that make up the suite, and how they work together to benefit you.

For further information on some of the challenges organisations face today, and just how ControlPoint can help, visit Discover ControlPoint, and sign up for a free assessment today!