PII covers information that identifies people, making its collection, storage, and disclosure central to privacy protection and breach response.
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Background for this topic.
PII (personally identifiable information) is information that identifies a person directly or can do so when combined with other data. Direct identifiers include names, government identification numbers, passport details, and email addresses; indirect identifiers can include birth dates, precise location, or unique account attributes. The term is used broadly in security, but its legal scope varies: laws and regulations may use different definitions, such as “personal data” under the GDPR or protected health information under HIPAA.
PII is a high-value target because unauthorized access or disclosure can enable identity fraud, targeted phishing, or privacy harm. It may be exposed through compromised applications, cloud storage, logs, endpoints, or third parties. Practitioners should inventory and classify it, collect and retain only what is needed, restrict access, and protect it with encryption or tokenization where appropriate. Monitoring and tested procedures for investigating exposure are important, while retention, deletion, and notification duties depend on the applicable jurisdiction and sector.
Air France and KLM have informed Flying Blue customers that some of their personal information was exposed after their accounts were breached. [...]
Security analysts disclosed severe API security flaws impacting numerous car makers, enabling them to access vehicle owner information, take over accounts, access internal systems, modify records, and track their position. [...]
The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has fined Meta a total of €390 million after finding that it forced Facebook and Instagram users to consent to personal data processing for targeted advertising. [...]
A new phishing campaign is exploiting the increasing interest of security community members towards Flipper Zero to steal their personal information and cryptocurrency. [...]