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AFSOC leans forward in PII Protection

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Brionna Ruff
  • Air Force Special Operations Command Public Affairs
HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. --  You may not view sending your office recall roster to your personal email or leaving a copy in your car as a big deal; however, all it takes is one person hacking into your email or breaking into your car and now you have potentially put your wingmen and yourself at risk.

In today's world, it is very easy for an adversary to gather information on you whether via the Internet or through the actual theft of hard drives, recall rosters, etc., which is why it is important for Airmen to safeguard personally identifiable information.

"Protecting sensitive PII is everyone's responsibility," said Lt. Gen. Eric Fiel, Air Force Special Operations Command commander. "It is critically important that we take the time to understand what constitutes PII and how to prevent any breaches so we can better safeguard our Airmen and our families."

PII is defined as any information about an individual maintained by an agency that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual's identity, such as their name, social security number, date, place of birth, mother's maiden name, biometrics records, etc. According to AFI 33-332 Communications and Information, a breach is defined as a loss of control, compromise or unauthorized access to any of the above information.

As stated in the article AFNET PII breaches still a concern, "The most common violations we are seeing are people transmitting personnel rosters from .mil to .com addresses and vice versa," said Col. Douglas Coppinger, the 67th Cyberspace Wing vice commander, the wing whose mission encompasses the detection of PII breaches. "While quite often these breaches are not of malicious intent, we need to better educate our Airmen on the protection of this type of information."

AFSOC has taken proactive measures to help reduce breaches by educating Air Commandos on the importance of protecting PII, placing privacy act managers at each installation and privacy act monitors in each unit. PAMs routinely brief the installation on PII and PII protection.

"The bottom line when it comes to PII is to remember that (operations security) protects the mission, and PII protects you," said Mabel Insco, AFSOC privacy act manager. "It's our job to make sure all Air Commandos protect themselves and each other."

To further emphasize its importance, Fiel issued the General Order on Protection of Sensitive Personally Identifiable Information on Electronic Media Dec. 12, directing all Air Commandos to protect sensitive PII and identifying disciplinary actions one could face if they disobey the order.

For more information concerning PII, contact your local Privacy Act Manager or your unit representative.