4 Ways to Protect Your
Personally Identifiable Information (PII) in the Digital World

If you are an organization that collects PII then it’s your responsibility to ensure the proper protocols are in place protect it. Paper records should be protected with a physical method like keycard access and a rigid handling protocol. Digital records require unique forms of protection at each part of their lifecycle. So, how can your organization effectively secure digitally store PII?

Start with these 5 steps:

1. Storing Data– Find out where and how your company stores PII and secure it. Depending on where you store your data this can mean a variety of different things.
   1. In Use- Data employees use regularly to do their jobs.
   2. At Rest- Data stored in computers, hard drives, and web servers.
   3. In Motion- Data transferring from one digital location to another like a desktop to the Cloud.
2. Permissions– Your organization can implement a Content Services Platform (CSP) to improve data security. A CSP will allow your organization to store documents and set different permission levels for employees based on what PII they need to access such as Public, Private, and Restricted Access. The CSP you use should also have the ability to implement other security measures. These security measures can include setting systems to only allow access to approved (white-listed) groups of IPs, User Audits, and Encryption.
3. Encrypt data at all levels- Make sure data is encrypted both at rest and in motion throughout your organization.
4. Employee Education– Create an onboarding strategy that ensures all employees are trained and familiar with PII and how to protect it. This includes the importance of PII, where it is stored in your company, the importance of cybersecurity protocols surrounding PII, and identifying suspicious behavior related to the handling of information. Similarly, you should have an employee exit strategy that includes removing permissions for any anyone leaving the company.
5. Automated Redaction – employ hyper automation to automatically redact both PII from both static files and audio recordings. This is a great option for archived records or for content that needs to be shared without compromising customer or patient privacy.