Regardless of the industry, personally identifiable information (PII) is governed by laws and regulations across the world. In most cases, businesses are required to protect information that can harm someone when exposed. Although data protection laws differ by country and state, the rules are strictly enforced.
The consequences of not protecting PII can be severe. Both data breaches and accidental data exposure can be damaging. The only difference is that data breaches are often more severe and come with hefty regulatory fines.
In this article, you’ll learn how to protect PII in any industry, but first, let’s define PII and sensitive data because the two aren’t always the same.
What is considered sensitive data?
PII isn’t necessarily sensitive. You might be wondering what type of personal information is considered to be sensitive data. That depends on the context. For example, Box explains several different circumstances where PII would be treated differently.
In one example, a list of people attending a volunteer orientation at their local food pantry is personally identifiable information, but it’s not considered sensitive. On the contrary, a list of people who received a particular vaccine would be considered PII and sensitive information since it’s related to their medical history. This is why data breaches in the health sector are major news stories.
Here are some tips to effectively protect PII, whether or not the data you manage is considered sensitive.
1. Take data protection seriously regardless of your industry
Every industry is susceptible to data breaches and accidental exposure. Although, some industries are more susceptible to data breaches than others, like government agencies and healthcare companies. That’s mostly because the amount of sensitive information processed in those sectors is enormous, so these industries are a prime target.
No matter what industry you’re in, take data protection seriously. If you process or store any personal data, even if it’s only a first name and email address, it’s worth protecting.
2. Encrypt data on your servers
Whether you own or lease a server, make sure it’s encrypted at rest and in transit. If you use a third-party software service, make sure they encrypt all data on their servers. If you’re handling PHI in the healthcare industry, encryption is basically a requirement.
Although it’s not specifically stated that data must be encrypted, encryption is the only way to prevent stolen data from being read. Since you can’t prevent all data breaches, encryption is the only way to avoid the consequences of a data breach.
3. Know what regulations you’re required to follow
With some regulations, you don’t have a choice. For instance, everyone must adhere to the GDPR. These regulations exist to protect data belonging to EU residents and everyone is required to comply when handling an EU resident’s data.
There are other, similar regulations that apply when handling certain people’s data. For instance, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) of 2018 gives CA residents several rights that all businesses must comply with or face severe consequences. Similar to the GDPR, the CCPA applies only when a business collects data from CA residents.
4. Enforce strict access policies
Who has access to your customer’s data? Ideally, you’ll want to keep customer data inaccessible to the majority of your employees. Your workers should only have access to the data they need to do their job and nothing more. This requires creating a system that grants or denies access to data based on specific credentials.
The biggest threat to data security is shared and stolen login credentials. Nobody should be able to access your customers’ data with just a username and password. Rather than implementing account-based access, use additional security measures like multi-factor authentication and device authentication.
Make sure your employees know that sharing login credentials is strictly forbidden. You may want to make credential sharing a fireable offense without any warnings or second chances. You can’t take data privacy too seriously because just one mistake can have devastating consequences for your customers and your business.
5. Don’t collect more data than you need
When you plan on marketing products and services to your contacts, it’s normal to collect as much information as possible. You may ask for a person’s name, email, birth date, gender, location, and more. This seems smart since you may want to use the information in the future. However, if you experience a data breach in the future, all of that data will be exposed.
As a precaution for your contacts, don’t collect any data you don’t already have a plan to use in your marketing campaign.
Every industry is a target for data breaches
Businesses in every industry are a potential target for hackers. There are no exceptions. If you collect data from your clients or customers, it’s your duty to protect it while it’s in your possession.
