PII covers information that identifies people, making its collection, storage, and disclosure central to privacy protection and breach response.
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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.
Absolute Dental Says Breach Involved Third-Party Managed Services FirmA Nevada dental practice is notifying more than 1.2 million individuals of a hacking incident that compromised sensitive health and personal information. The incident involved "inadvertent execution of a malicious version of a legitimate software tool," said Absolute Dental.
Consumer credit reporting giant TransUnion warns it suffered a data breach exposing the personal information of over 4.4 million people in the United States. [...]
Anthropic on Wednesday revealed that it disrupted a sophisticated operation that weaponized its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot Claude to conduct large-scale theft and extortion of personal data in July 2025
The Healthcare Services Group (HSGI) is alerting more than 600,000 individuals that their personal information was exposed in a security breach last year. [...]
Department of Government Efficiency Staffers Created 'Live Replica' of SSA DataThe Social Security Administration's chief data officer is warning in a whistleblower complaint that DOGE created a cloud replica of the Social Security database without proper authorization or oversight, potentially exposing the personal data of 300 million Americans.
Though the company is informing its customers of the breach, Farmers isn't publicly divulging what kinds of personal data were affected.
Crims raided third-party systems and lifted personal data, including license numbers and partial SSNs US insurance giant Farmers Insurance says more than a million customers had personal data nicked after a third-party vendor was compromised.…