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.
Critical data on old disks always seems inaccessible if you really need it. But when you DON''T want it back, guess what happens...
If you could stop storing records on people unconnected to any crimes, that would be great An EU watchdog says rules that allow Europol cops to retain personal data on individuals with no links to criminal activity go against Europe's own data privacy protections, not to mention undermining the regulator's powers and role.…
Those suffering emotional and physical impact surges
'Indiscriminate' preemptive harvesting of personal info a big no-no. What a novel concept On Tuesday, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) issued rulings that limit indiscriminate data retention in France and Germany.…
Our research examines the security flaws that we found in the logistics API implementation of e-commerce platforms that can potentially expose the consumers’ personal information. We discuss the security risks that such flaws present for software engineers, e-commerce platform providers, and consumers.
American Airlines has notified customers of a recent data breach after attackers compromised an undisclosed number of employee email accounts and gained access to sensitive personal information. [...]