PII security strikes back Published Feb. 7, 2014 By Senior Airman Alexis Siekert 52nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany -- The strongest defense against a Personal Identifiable Information breach is to safeguard PII. While this is everyone's responsibility when operating on government computers, the content being sent through email is being double checked. Spangdahlem currently leads U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa with the highest number of PII breaches this year with four alone in January. In an effort to rectify this, individuals who wrongfully send out information will be locked out of the network. "From December 2013 to January 2014, our PII breaches increased from 2 to 8 -- a 400% rise," said Lt. Gen. Tom Jones, USAFE-AFAFRICA Vice Commander. According to Air Force Instruction 33-332, a PII breach is defined as a loss of control, compromise, unauthorized disclosure, unauthorized acquisition, unauthorized access, or any similar term referring to situations where persons other than authorized users and for an other than authorized purpose have access or potential access to PII, whether physical or electronic. "The Air Force Space Command developed this new process to make people more cognizant of what they are sending out, and to elevate the consequences," said Staff Sgt. Rhonnie Nixon, 52nd Communications Squadron base knowledge operations NCO in charge. "After being locked out, in order to regain access to your account, the 3rd Air Force commander and 52nd Fighter Wing commander must be notified. The level of punishment for these breaches is starting to increase with paperwork as well." PII is information that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual's identity, either alone or when combined with other personal or identifying information that is linked or linkable to a specific individual. There are simple ways to keep PII out of the wrong hands, Nixon said. "Encrypt emails containing PII when sending to other Air Force-network computers, and make sure PII is not being sent to civilian accounts," she said. "We have to start being more aware of what our emails contain. These rosters consist of our fellow Saber's personal information. Question yourself before pressing send if you would want your information being sent unwillingly." For more information or to report a potential breach, contact 52nd CS/SCOK at 452-6949 or at 52cs.scbar@us.af.mil.