Day in and day out, droves of data are transmitted, stored and forgotten on our devices— from the restaurant menu you viewed to the credit card information you paid with. While we routinely access data to execute everyday operations, a large majority goes unused or overlooked. This buried and unstructured data, referred to as dark data, is especially susceptible to hacking because it’s out of sight, out of mind. Heureka Software in Cleveland, Ohio, has developed technology to shine light on dark data and identify potential risks before it’s too late.

“People don’t want their sensitive information accessible to others, so they’ll take steps to protect it,” said Ronald Copfer, Founder and Chairman of Heureka Software. “But how do you protect what you’re not even aware exists? We developed the solution to discover dark data and deal with it appropriately.”

Heureka Software works like this: It can be installed as a software application on a single server or thousands of computers in a network. You can search that individual computer or all computers from a central command console, using parameters like key terms and date ranges to find the data you’re looking for. Once these files are uncovered, users have the option of moving them to new folders, deleting them entirely or quarantining them. In a sense, it operates like a standard antivirus program, but for dark data.

Initially developed as a means for legal professionals to find documents buried on individual hard drives, Copfer and his team quickly realized the potential of this technology extended far beyond that initial, narrow application.

“We started showing the product to organizations in 2014 and we showed them how it worked. One by one, the customers would tell us, ‘Oh, forget finding evidence. We can use this to find malware, credit card numbers and documents with social security numbers,’” said Copfer. “They recognized the potential before we did.”

People were shocked at how much delicate data they had floating around. They wanted a way to keep their information secure, and Copfer knew his technology could be tweaked to do exactly that. That’s when the company pivoted to a broader application and changed its name to ‘Heureka,’ the ancient Greek word for ‘I found it.’

Read the full story at TechOhio.