10. A computer program product comprising a computer recordable medium having a computer readable program recorded thereon, wherein the computer readable program, when executed on a data processing system, causes the data processing system to: retrieve one or more security search rules setting forth one or more security criteria for identifying items of information that contain confidential information; perform a security search on one or more client computing devices to identify at least one item of information stored on a given client computing device within the one or more client computing devices meeting the one or more security criteria; retrieve search results of the security search, wherein the search results of the security search contain the at least one item of information that meets the one or more security criteria; analyze the search results by applying security policy compliance requirements to the at least one item of information to determine whether the at least one item of information meets the security policy compliance requirements; and generate a report based on results of the analysis of the search results, wherein the security policy compliance requirements identify requirements for maintaining items of information that contain confidential information in a confidential state, wherein the computer readable program causes the data processing system to generate the report based on results of the analysis of the search results by providing a notification to the given client computing device indicating a violation of the security policy compliance requirements and a solution for placing the at least one item of information in compliance with the security policy compliance requirements.
10. A computer program product comprising a computer recordable medium having a computer readable program recorded thereon, wherein the computer readable program, when executed on a data processing system, causes the data processing system to: retrieve one or more security search rules setting forth one or more security criteria for identifying items of information that contain confidential information; perform a security search on one or more client computing devices to identify at least one item of information stored on a given client computing device within the one or more client computing devices meeting the one or more security criteria; retrieve search results of the security search, wherein the search results of the security search contain the at least one item of information that meets the one or more security criteria; analyze the search results by applying security policy compliance requirements to the at least one item of information to determine whether the at least one item of information meets the security policy compliance requirements; and generate a report based on results of the analysis of the search results, wherein the security policy compliance requirements identify requirements for maintaining items of information that contain confidential information in a confidential state, wherein the computer readable program causes the data processing system to generate the report based on results of the analysis of the search results by providing a notification to the given client computing device indicating a violation of the security policy compliance requirements and a solution for placing the at least one item of information in compliance with the security policy compliance requirements. 14. The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein the computer readable program causes the data processing system to retrieve search results of the security search by gathering characteristic information associated with the at least one item of information, wherein the characteristic information comprises at least one of an identity of the at least one item of information, the search criteria met by the at least one item of information, or information identifying a protection mechanism currently applied to the at least one item of information.