Why protect personally identifiable information

  • Published
  • By 48th Communications Squadron
ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England --  Identity thefts have seemingly reached near-epidemic proportions, making it everyone's duty and obligation within 48th Fighter Wing work places to ensure personally identifiable information, or PII, is properly collected, accessed, used, shared and disposed of at all times.

What is PII? It is information about an individual that identifies, describes, links to, relates to or is unique to an individual, such as their name, social security number, date and place of birth, mother's maiden name or any other personal information which is linked or linkable to a specific individual.

Protecting PII is the responsibility of every 48th Fighter Wing member. Loss of PII creates a risk to personnel as well as the security of our base and systems. One way to safeguard PII is to correctly mark, sign and encrypt emails containing it or other sensitive information.

Below is a guide to sending personal information or other sensitive information over email:
  • Ensure there is an official need.
  • Add the "For Official Use Only" acronym, FOUO, to the beginning of the subject line.
  • Add "The information herein is For Official Use Only (FOUO) which must be protected under the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended. Unauthorized disclosure or misuse of this PERSONAL INFORMATION may result in criminal and/or civil penalties" to the first line of email text.
  • Sign and encrypt email to protect from unauthorized disclosure, loss or alteration.
  • Do not indiscriminately apply the Privacy Act statement to email.
  • Avoid sending PII to distribution lists or group email addresses.
So to answer the original question: Why protect personally identifiable information? Not only because it is your duty and obligation to do so, but because one day the information being sent could be yours!

For questions or additional information, contact the 48th Communications Squadron Knowledge Operations Management at 226-3135, or email 48cs.scok@lakenheath.af.mil.