What is Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

You often see the acronym PII used when discussing security, privacy, and data breaches. It stands for Personally Identifiable Information. This is personal data that can be used to uniquely identify a specific individual.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines PII as information that can be used to distinguish or trace the identity of an individual (e.g., date and place of birth, mother’s maiden name, etc.). This can be done either directly or in combined with other personal or identifying information that is linkable to a specific individual

If you’ve been following the news about identity theft, data breaches, ransomware attacks, and personal or online privacy, you probably noticed personally identifiable information is often discussed. While this term might seem simple, it’s more complicated than you think. The compromise of your PII can significantly harm your personal and financial profile.

PII is significant because it is how identity thieves perpetrate their crimes. Whether your data is lost, stolen, or simply exposed, it is gold to identity thieves. Some PII is considered more valuable. Sometimes all that is needed is one or two pieces of information to steal a person’s identity.

The following are the data usually sought by fraudsters;

Social Security number
Bank account number
Driver’s license number
Physical address
Full name
Date of birth.

These thieves also look for medical, educational, financial, employment, and other information that can be used to identify you or when combined with additional information. The list is not exhaustive.

What Type of Information is Considered Personal Identifiable Information?

Some bit of information are unique to you and you alone. This type of PII, is often referred to as “sensitive.” This sensitive data are what identity thieves are most interested in capturing.

Sensitive data includes:

Personal identification numbers: These are items like Social Security number (SSN), driver’s license number, passport number, taxpayer identification number, patient identification number, financial account number, or credit card number
Personal address information: street address or email address
Personal telephone numbers: home phones or mobile phones
Protected health information (PHI): medical record numbers, medical histories, test results, health insurance beneficiary numbers, or payment information for healthcare services
Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data: credit card numbers, bank card numbers or financial account numbers
Personal characteristics: These are photographic images (particularly of face or other identifying characteristics) or handwriting
Biometric data: These are items such as fingerprints, retina scans, voice signatures, or facial geometry
Information identifying personally owned property: These are items such as Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) or vehicle title number
Asset information: Internet Protocol (IP) address or Media Access Control (MAC) ID are typically link to a specific person

Other pieces of data by themselves aren’t considered PII but when combine with other information can be significant. This information has become known as “linkable information.” Combining them or linking them to one of the above examples can be equally appealing to fraudsters…and equally harmful if exposed. This type of PII may include your:

Place of birth
Date of birth
Race
Religion
Medical information
Education information
Financial information
Geographical indicators
Employment information
Business telephone number
Business mailing or email address

What Do Criminals Do with PII?

There are many malicious ways that cybercriminals and identity thieves use your PII. First, they can use your information to apply for loans, or make froaudulent purchases using your credit cards information, steal your tax refunds, drain your financial accounts, or more.

Another way that Personally Identifable Information may be used is to commit synthetic identity theft. . According to the FBI, synthetic identity theft is the fastest-growing financial crime in the U.S. Fraudsters create a Synthetic identity by combining one person’s Personally Identifiable Information with the fake details and/or personal information from another individuals data. Here is an example, one individual’s Social Security number might be combined with a phony name and address as well as a third persons real person’s driver’s license to create a completely new identity

The third-way criminals may use PII is by selling your stolen data on the Dark Web. Items marketable on the Dark Web are items such as your social media credentials, credit card numbers, medical records and Netflix passwords, can all be sold by bad actors. These fraudsters can make a pretty penny by capturing and selling our data.

How does Audit Alarm Protect My Tax Account and Help Prevent Tax-Related Identity Theft

Audit Alarm is a modern Tax Account Monitoring and tax-related identity theft protection company. Since 2005, Legacy Tax & Resolution Services has been a leading provider of proactive tax account monitoring and consumer identity theft protection services. We leverage unique data, science, and patented technology and provide tax identity threat detection, proactive tax account alerts^†, and comprehensive resolution services.

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