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.
American pharmaceutical firm Inotiv is notifying thousands of people that they're personal information was stolen in an August 2025 ransomware attack. [...]
Leroy Merlin is sending security breach notifications to customers in France, informing them that their personal data was compromised. [...]
Freedom Mobile, the fourth-largest wireless carrier in Canada, has disclosed a data breach after attackers hacked into its customer account management platform and stole the personal information of an undisclosed number of customers. [...]
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn) has confirmed a new data breach after attackers stole documents containing personal information from its Oracle E-Business Suite servers in August. [...]
South Korea's largest retailer, Coupang, has suffered a data breach that exposed the personal information of 33.7 million customers. [...]