What You Need to Know About Your Personally Identifiable Information

Hackers are always on the lookout for personally identifiable information, or PII, as it’s an immensely lucrative resource. You’ll need to protect it if you want your business to continue operating safely and efficiently. Let’s go over what PII entails and what kinds of data you might find under this term.

What Constitutes PII?

The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Computer Security Resource Center (CSRC) defines PII as such:

“Any representation of information that permits the identity of an individual to whom the information applies to be reasonably inferred by either direct or indirect means.”

Let’s say your business had a contact named Charlie Brown, some of their data might include the following.

Examples of PII

If you hosted the data for this totally fake individual named Charlie Brown, you might be responsible for the loss of the following data:

• His name
• His address
• His phone number
• His personal identification numbers
• His information that identifies his property
• His personal features
• His asset information

Data Can Combine to Constitute PII

Depending on the other information you have collected, the following combinations could be considered PII as well:

• His date and place of birth
• His race
• His religion
• His weight
• His activities
• His geographic location
• His employment history
• His medical data
• His educational history
• His financial data
• His family information

Hypothetically, if someone had Charlie Brown’s employment history and family information, they could have enough to be considered PII.

Protect Your PII at All Costs

The damages that could result if you do not take proper care of PII stored on your company’s infrastructure are devastating to say the least. We recommend you call us today to learn more about how to secure it all. Contact us today at 708-781-7110.