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.
African mobile giant MTN Group announced that a cybersecurity incident has compromised the personal information of some of its subscribers in certain countries. [...]
Yale New Haven Health (YNHHS) is warning that threat actors stole the personal data of 5.5 million patients in a cyberattack earlier this month. [...]
Breach Victim Tally Soars Since Firm Filed an Initial Breach Report in Early AprilKelly Benefits is notifying nine large clients and nearly 264,000 individuals that their sensitive personal information was potentially compromised in a December data theft incident. The tally of affected people has climbed eight-fold since the company’s first estimate earlier this month.
European Commission Also Fines Apple 500 Million EurosEuropean regulators said Facebook conducted an end run around privacy regulations by requiring users to pay a monthly subscription fee or else accept that their personal data would be fed to advertisers. The European Commission fined the social media giant 200 million euros.