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.
Made public highly sensitive data on complaints about Metropolitan Police Service The London Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime is being rapped by regulators for untidy tech practices that made public the personal data of hundreds of people who filed complaints against the Metropolitan Police Service.…
An AppOmni researcher detailed a misconfiguration in the HSE COVID Vaccination Portal, exposing the health and personal data of over a million Irish citizens
The data privacy company Onerep.com bills itself as a Virginia-based service for helping people remove their personal information from almost 200 people-search websites. However, an investigation into the history of onerep.com finds this company is operating out of Belarus and Cyprus, and that its founder has launched dozens of people-search services over the years.
SIM swappers have adapted their attacks to steal a target's phone number by porting it into a new eSIM card, a rewritable SIM chip present on many recent smartphone models. [...]
SIM swappers have adapted their attacks to steal a target's phone number from an eSIM card, a rewritable SIM chip present on many recent smartphone models. [...]
A possible ransomware attack has exposed government and personal data of Australians and New Zealanders, encompassing the carmaker's customers, dealers, and employees.
Stanford University says the personal information of 27,000 individuals was stolen in a ransomware attack impacting its Department of Public Safety (SUDPS) network. [...]