14 DAY TRIAL // Internet fraud has increased in the past months at an alarming rate and users generally think that installing a much praised anti-spyware security is achieved. Well, it may come to you as a surprise, but no matter how good an anti spyware is, your sensitive data is still at risk and as soon as a malevolent person gets the hands on your laptop or desktop, there is little you can do for that person not to find the personal details.
Security numbers, passwords, credit card details, phone numbers, bank accounts, addresses, telephone numbers, user names, passport numbers, driver license's information, these are all prone to thievery and all these details are your IDs in today's society. The hacker has little interest in your name as a social security number gives much more accurate information about you and a credit card number gives details about your wealth state.
So protecting all this data must become a priority for you. By simply filling a web form, applying for something on the Internet or even buying something on the Web and using your credit card, you are actually jeopardizing the security of your personal data, because traces are left behind in your computer.
Identity Finder is a $39.95 software designed to search the most hidden areas of your computer for personal details mentioned above. Besides displaying the sensitive information that can be stolen by anyone who knows where to look, the application is also offering its security capabilities in order to protect the data. If you simply want it deleted from your computer Identity Finder sports a shredder to eliminate it beyond recovery.
The interface is very easy to handle and even the un-initiated will get along with performing the searches and adding the elements to be looked for. If you encounter any problems with harnessing it, there is a flash movie tutorial on the developer's website to enlighten you. Besides, the dynamic tooltips will explain the different functions and options perfectly.
The three tabs available in the main application window permit the user to select the type of sensitive data Identity Finder should look for, the locations to be scanned and managing the search results. The locations to be searched range from the entire computer to a custom location.
Regarding the types of files to be searched, these are divided into three categories: Home and Office Files (files and archives), E-Mails (messages and attachments) and System (Hidden Web Data and Windows Registry). Clicking on them will activate the search. During our testing the application performed beautifully, except when it came to looking through archives. Identity Finder crashed every time in the same spot. This is pretty odd considering that PC magazine encountered a similar problem when it came to Windows Registry.
What to Search For tab contains the sensitive data options. The user can elect from here what Identity Finder should look for exactly. AnyFind technology may be of help for some of the users, but for accurate results, you should check the Add/Remove Information section. AnyFind is the default selection and it'll only scan your computer for credit card numbers, bank accounts, social security nos. and passwords.
Add/Remove on the other hand lets you customize and add more data to the search. Thus, you can type in info about your date of birth, driver's license number, personal address, passport number, telephone no., employee ID or any other type of information you want Identity Finder to bring to light. All these settings can be saved and used for later searches.
One great feature sported by the application is the Unique Searching algorithm that will extend the information you are providing to different formats. For instance, entering "softpedia" as data to be searched will result in the software checking various letter cases, such as "SOFTPEDIA" or "Softpedia". The same applies for dates: entering "01/01/1982" will expand Identity Finder's results to "01-01-1982" or "January 01, 1982".
After all your settings have been made, you can start the "hunt" for sensitive data by going to Main tab and pressing Start button. A piece of advice: do not attempt to do anything else while the application is scanning, because it will be extremely difficult. During our testing, even with Below Normal priority the process will still gulp about 70% of the CPU power. Also, you should make this an all-nighter as a complete scan of your computer will probably put you on hold for that long.
However, the results are extraordinary. I do not use the computer at work for making online payments, but there are several websites I check regularly and all my non-secured passwords were dug up from the depths of my computer. I was presented with the exact location of the file and I was also offered secure shredding and ignoring options. In the right hand side of the application window, the software will open the file containing the compromising data and will highlight it for better view.
The shredding is indeed beyond recovery as we could no longer find a trace of the deleted elements by using software means.
Identity Finder proved to be a very flexible program that can be used for other purposes besides "unearthing" the sensitive information on your computer. It can also be used for securing the files on your computer by means of an encryption algorithm. These include AES 128-bit, 256-bit and the least secure of them, Zip 2.0. For the latter there is no need for special archivers as the unzipping task can be carried out successfully by most archivers. For the AES encryption however, you may encounter some problems. I tried opening the files by using a regular archiver and it did not work. Applying the special capabilities of WinZip made the job a cinch.
Secure deletion is also available for the files on your computer and for a better security of your web data the software is equipped with a special shredder for deleting hidden Internet Explorer and Firefox web data. Identity Finder did its job perfectly for IE and eliminated the temporaries, cookies, history, form data and passwords stored, but when it came to Firefox I experienced utter failure and only cache files were decimated. Browsing, search and download history, saved passwords and cookies were all left behind due to some errors of the application.
The Good
Identity Finder comes wrapped in a beautiful dynamic interface that is easy to use. The detection power is high and the data searching options allow you to search for sensitive information on your computer, no matter what.
For a quick scanning of your computer you can use AnyFind Automatic Search that will look for the most important data on your system (Credit Card, Bank Account, Social Security No. and Passwords).
Searching options go as far as scanning hidden web data and Windows Registry. The results are as accurate as your search query. The information you are searching for can be saved and used in different search sessions.
Identity Finder can be scheduled to scan your computer on a regular basis, either daily, weekly or monthly, or at system startup, logon or when the system is idle.
The Bad
When searching in compressed files the application crashed in the exact same spot. If you are planning a complete scan of your computer for sensitive data, brace yourselves as the job will take pretty long time to complete.
During the testing I felt the need of a tool to help me read/open the secured files. I think this would be a good addition as well as providing the user with various overwrite methods for secure deleting the data.
Autorecover option could not be used as it kept asking for a password I did not have (the one used during the testing did not work because the application uses an internal password for opening autorecover.iff file) and the session would not load automatically.
The Truth
Great application if it weren't for some minor mischiefs. It really makes you wonder how hard it is to achieve security of your data as it reveals locations you would have never thought of. It revealed all the data that was not properly secured.
The purpose Identity Finder is serving is laudable and there aren't many such softwares out there. The help file will thoroughly explain all the aspects of the application and the flash movie on the developer's website highly contributes to understanding the use of the program.
Unfortunately, there still are issues to be fixed.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
