How to set up and disable Data discovery

Search your devices for sensitive files that no one has worked with for a long time. Learn how to change which devices and paths should be searched or how to disable Data discovery altogether.

In this article, you will learn:

• More about Data discovery
• Prerequisites
• How to set up Data discovery
• Where to see the results of Data discovery
• How to export Data discovery records into a .xlsx file
• How to disable Data discovery

Introduction: More about Data discovery

Data discovery searches your devices for files with sensitive data that have not been accessed or used for some time. By default, Data discovery:

• Is enabled.
• Runs on all devices in your company with Safetica Client installed.
• Searches for sensitive files on critical paths (i.e., the Documents, Desktop, and Downloads folders). 

You can change these settings or disable Data discovery altogether.

Prerequisites

1. To access the Data discovery settings, the admin must have Data destinations, data classification, and categorization permission enabled in Settings > Accounts and permissions.

How to set up data discovery

To change the settings of Data discovery:

1. Go to the Data classification section in Safetica console.
2. Click Data discovery settings.

  3.  In Apply to devices, click List all devices and choose those devices on which Data discovery should run. The user tree only shows teams and devices, but not users.

  4.  In Searched file paths, choose what paths should be searched for files with sensitive data. You can choose to search either:

• • Full local drives – searches all local physical drives and their partitions/volumes.

• • Critical paths – searches the Documents, Desktop, and Downloads folders for each user on the device.

  5.  Check that the Status of Data discovery is Enabled.

Where to see the results of Data discovery

To see the results of data discovery, i.e. what sensitive data was found in stored files:

1. Go to the Data discovery section in Safetica console.
2. In the table, you will see a list of stored files that contain sensitive data.
3. Click the desired record in the table.
4. The data classification detail will open. You will see what data classifications the file matched, what data was detected (e.g., birth numbers), and the number of occurrences.

How to export Data discovery records into a .xlsx file

You can export the info from the Data discovery section (including selected filters) into a .xlsx file.

Depending on the amount of exported data, creating the export may take several minutes. Meanwhile, you can keep working in the console, but please remain signed in. If you sign out, the export creation will be canceled.
Once ready, the exported file will be automatically downloaded.

To export Data discovery records:

1. Go to the Data discovery section in Safetica console.
2. Click Export, and in the dialog window confirm by clicking Export data.
3. The export creation will start.
4. Once the export is ready, it is automatically downloaded.

How to disable Data discovery

If you disable Data discovery, Safetica will stop searching for sensitive files stored on your devices.

To disable Data discovery:

1. Go to the Data classification section in Safetica console.
2. Click Data discovery settings.
3. Change the Status of Data discovery to Disabled.