Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is any piece of information which can potentially be used to uniquely identify, contact, or locate a person. Now more than ever, the security of one's PII has become important as information technology and the Internet have made it easier for hackers to collect PII, which can lead to identity theft or other heinous crimes. Examples of PII include, but are not limited to, a person's telephone number, home address, IP address, e-mail address, credit card number, and social security number.
IT Security and Policy Office recommends that individuals that handle PII for business purposes, periodically scan their machines with the software mentioned below, to locate secure sensitive information.
- Spider: Spider is tool created by Cornell University and is available as free software. Information about Spider can be found in this GROK Article.
Once located, the information should be properly secured using encryption. Information on encryption can be found here.