Specifying File Types to Search for Sensitive Data

The Search these File Types setting allows you to let Spirion search only common file types, all filterable file types, all files, or a custom list:

• Images (with OCR):  When the OCR Image Search module is installed, this option is available. This option specifies that Optical Character Recognition (OCR) should be used to search for text within images. The following file types are supported: bmp, dcx, gif, jbig2, jp2, jpeg, jpf, jpg, jpg2000, jpm, jpx, max, pcx, png, tfx, tif, tiff, xif, xiff, and xps. If the DPI of an image is less than 75 or greater than 2400, the recognition may fail and log an error. As of update 10.9, scans languages including English, Spanish, French, and German.
• Common (this is the default option): This option will perform the quickest search while also searching the files on your computer most likely to contain personal information. When this option is selected, Spirion will search through text files (including most Instant Messenger logs), Microsoft Office files, Adobe Acrobat PDF files, web page documents (such as HTML files), and other common formats. Even if your computer has the ability to search metadata stored within a file such as when a photo was taken for a jpg file or the artist information in an mp3 file, that information will not be searched when this option is selected. To see which file types are searched when Common is selected, select Custom from the drop down, then click Manage and then click the Restore button. The items that are already checked represent the list of extensions that are searched when Common is selected.
• All Filterable:  This option searches through all files that your computer has the ability to search via an internal Spirion filter or via a Windows IFilter. When this option is selected, Spirion will search all common file types plus any other file type for which you have installed an IFilter. For example, if your camera software installed the ability for Windows to read information from a jpg file about when a photo was taken or a drawing program installed the ability for Windows to read the text from shapes and other visual elements, then that information will also be searched.
• Custom:  This option allow you to select the files that Spirion will search. For more information, please see Manage Custom File Type List.
• All but common binary: This option searches all files except for common binary files. Common binary file types include application, system and multimedia files (e.g. exe, dll, mp3) that are unlikely to contain sensitive information. When you select this option and click the 'Manage' button, any file extension that contains a checkmark will be excluded from the search. For a full list of binary files that commonly contain no text, please see Binary Files That Do Not Commonly Contain Text.
• All:  This option is the most comprehensive (and therefore slowest) option because Spirion will try and extract all the text from any type of file that does not have an internal Spirion filter or an IFilter.  No matter what type of file or what the file is named, when this option is selected, Spirion will search inside of it.

Note: To view the list of Common Files, select Custom and click the Manage button; the full list of extensions is the list of Filterable file types and the selected (checked) extensions are Common.

To allow Spirion to search files for which you have installed an IFilter, you must select the All filterable file types, Custom file type list, or Search all files radio button.

Note:  If you would like to override the default filter that is used for searching files click the Override button.  For example, you might want to add additional extensions to be considered text, such as *.bak.  In this case you may override default search filters so that those file types are treated as text.  See the Override Default Search Filters help topic for more information.

Note:  Spirion does not interpret audio or video, therefore a picture of a password or a song with lyrics about your password will not be found.

Additional Information

To view or modify this setting, click the Configuration ribbon, then the Settings button and then select the File Types page.  For additional settings please refer to View and Manage File Types and Options or Settings to Customize Your Experience.