File fingerprinting

Forcepoint DLP helps organizations block the distribution of specific information to external recipients by fingerprinting files and directories and scanning data in motion for those fingerprints. Fingerprinting can be used to protect SharePoint directories, as well as any network file system or file shares.

Important: Forcepoint does not save or back up your data in the fingerprinting process. The fingerprint repository only saves partial hashes of fingerprinted data, in order to detect them in future transactions. For your own protection, make sure you have a backup system in place.
Note: The DLP Crawler, when installed on either Windows Server 2012 and above, supports SMBv2 and SMBv3 encryption as a client.

Use the Main > Policy Management > Policy Management > Content Classifiers > File Fingerprinting page in the Data Security module of the Forcepoint Security Manager to view or manage a file or directory fingerprinting classifier.

To create a fingerprinting classifier:

  1. The File Fingerprinting page displays a list of fingerprinting classifiers:
    1. Expand the right pane to view more details, such as last run time and next run time, or you can collapse it to show fewer.
    2. Click the links in the details pane to learn more about the fingerprinted files and folders.
    3. Start, stop, or pause a fingerprinting task using buttons in the toolbar at the top of the content pane.
  2. Click New in the toolbar at the top of the content pane, then select one of the following to open a fingerprinting wizard:
    • File System Fingerprinting (see File System Fingerprinting Wizard - General section.)
    • SharePoint Fingerprinting (see SharePoint Fingerprinting Wizard - General section.)

    You can fingerprint data on sites running the following versions of Microsoft SharePoint:

      • Microsoft SharePoint 2007
      • Microsoft SharePoint 2010
      • Microsoft SharePoint 2013
      • Microsoft SharePoint 2016
    • Domino Fingerprinting (see Domino Fingerprinting Wizard - General section.)
      Important:
      • Install IBM Notes before installing Forcepoint DLP. Notes must be on the same machine as the crawler. Be sure that the Notes installation is done for “Anyone who uses this computer.”
      • Provide your Notes user ID file and password when prompted by the Forcepoint DLP installer. This information is used to authenticate access to the Domino server for fingerprinting and discovery.
      • Log onto Notes, one time only, and supply a user name and password. This user must have administrator privileges for the Domino environment. (Read permissions are not sufficient.)
      • Connect to the Domino server from the Notes client.
  3. Complete the information on each page and click Next to proceed through the wizard.
    Note: To import an existing fingerprinting classifier—one that has been exported and copied to a network location— select Import from the toolbar. See Imported fingerprinting section.