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Preferred has been serving the Tinley Park area since 1991, providing IT Support such as technical helpdesk support, computer support, and consulting to small and medium-sized businesses.

What You Need to Know About Your Personally Identifiable Information

Preferred Blog Security

Vince Arden

Monday, May 27 2024

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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.

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Data Security Privacy

About the author

Vince Arden

Vince Arden is the founder and President of Preferred Communication Systems. He is a graduate of DeVry University with over 30 years of experience in the IT industry. In addition to providing leadership in sales, marketing, project management, and service delivery at Preferred, Vince provides Virtual CIO-level services for the 4th-largest Realtor Association in the nation and to an Inc. 500 fastest growing company. He has been interviewed by industry publications like Redmond magazine, CRN News, and Continuum for his expertise related to cloud computing and the managed IT services industry. He also lends his voice as a contributing author for the Cloud Business Review.

His core purpose is to, "Help people achieve their greatest potential in work and L.I.F.E." He passionately works toward making this a reality in every aspect of life, including his areas of expertise, such as thought leadership, ideation, communication, team building, and Servant Leadership. Vince models building strong relationships, both with his team at Preferred and with his clients. He strives to build a network of people he can embolden to work smarter, so that they may ultimately be able to live better.

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