Personally Identifiable Information Analysis

Personally Identifiable Information (PII), is information about a person that uniquely identifies an individual, such information includes; an individual’s name, social security number, biometric records, medical records, financial information, passports, date and place of birth, educational information, employment information, (Radack, 2010) and parental information (for example: mother’s maiden name.) (GSA, 2015) (Rouse, 2014) The examples of PII listed above is what is known as sensitive personally identifiable information and due to the level of sensitivity, all information should be encrypted when not in use. Non-sensitive personally identifiable information is information that can be transferred without the consequences of harming
When pertaining to ethics it is defined as the principles of right and wrong that individuals, acting as free moral agents, use to make choices to guide their behaviors. Prentice Hall states, “This is truer today than ever due to the challenges posed by the Internet and electronic commerce to the protection of privacy and intellectual property.” Along with this there are more ethical issues that are raised by the broad use of information systems, which include establishment of accountability pertaining to the consequences of information systems, establishing a thorough defense system which protects individuals, and securing values considered essential to the quality of life in an information society. Any business or large company, should be trained on being able to effectively deal with any issues. Firm technologies have made clear ways to assemble, integrate, and distribute information in the protection of personally identifiable information. Examples of these are; if you work in a career field such as finance or accounting, ensure that the information systems used are protected from computer fraud and abuse. In the field of human resources, developing and enforcing an ethics policy and providing special training to sensitize workers to new ethical issues that pertain to information systems. In the information systems field, the insurance of making management aware of the ethical implications of the technologies used and
When you are on an electronic device always remember to never download from an untrusted location in not doing so you can be tricked into installing a malicious software. Other ways to prevent the installation of malicious software are to, always look at the name of the file before downloading, stay away from torrents, sites with adult content, and movie streaming sites, and lastly always scan before installing. Always keep in mind that hackers are able to alternate the operating system, so ensure to have an up to date anti-virus scanner. When leaving your computer exposed to physical access it is recommended to lock down the entire computer station before leaving. (University of California Santa Cruz, 2015) If you have a computer in a company location, make sure that you limit the admin access and install scanners to prevent employee initiated breaches. If you have sensitive information lying around it is best to lock away all important documents and to shred any papers that contain PII that are no longer needed. Use cryptic passwords as well as different passwords for accounts, try to do passwords resets whenever possible and never use the same password twice. (University of California Santa Cruz, 2015) Other ways that companies use to inform their employees in the risks and importance of PII is requiring their employees and contractors to complete trainings such as the “IT Security Awareness and