What is Confidential Information?

• Any information not known to outsiders that has value to the Corporate or whose premature disclosure would help competitors or be harmful to the Corporate.
• Can include physical, electronic, or oral information.
• Must be classified and protected according to guidelines set in Global Enterprise Information Classification Policy.

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See Encryption Matrix Document for details.

Protecting Your Sensitive Data
An important aspect of security is protecting sensitive data from being read, changed, copied, or destroyed by unauthorized persons. Protection is especially important in today’s business world, where trade secrets can be worth millions of dollars, client confidentiality must be safeguarded, and government regulations often mandate that particular information not be disclosed.

What is Sensitive Data?
Sensitive data is any information that should be viewed and manipulated only by trusted parties. For practical purposes, the sensitive data that you might have stored on your computer or that you might access on the network can be divided into two categories: sensitive business data and sensitive personal data.

Sensitive Business Data
Sensitive business data includes any information related to the business or organization that could cause harm to the organization, its clients, its partners or any individual if it were deleted or made available to unauthorized users. Such information includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Clients’ or business partners’ personal information collected in the course of doing business, such as names, addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, financial information, medical records, legal matters, and account numbers.
• Employees’ personal information, including salary information (unless the organization is a public entity), disciplinary records, employment history, medical history, and criminal history.
• Financial information about the organization (other than that required to be disclosed by law), business strategies, and future business plans.
• Trade secrets, research and development information, and patent plans.

Sensitive Personal Data
Sensitive personal data you might have stored on your computer or on the network includes:

• Your home address and telephone number.
• Social security number, driver’s license number and other identification numbers.
• Bank account information and credit card information (if you perform financial transactions online).
• Medical information such as health insurance claims and correspondence with health care providers.
• Legal information.
• Internal employee information.

Where Data Exists
Data is located in many different places, including the following:

• Your Web browser’s cache (Temporary Internet Files) and history folder can reveal what Web sites you have visited, as can the cookies folder and the Favorites list.
• The My Downloads folder can reveal files that you have downloaded.
• Your e-mail program’s temporary folder can contain copies of file attachments that you have received with e-mail.
• Word processing programs create temporary files while you are working that may not be deleted when you delete the main file. Many other application programs also create temporary files.
• The Windows clipboard can show data that you have cut from documents.
• Your Instant Messenger (IM) program may be set to log your conversations to a file. Its contact or “buddy” list will reveal persons with whom you communicate.
• Your My Recent Documents folder shows what files you have worked on.
• Media Player software’s history and playlists can reveal what audio and video files you have played.
• Your contacts list can reveal persons with whom you exchange e-mail, as can the address autocomplete feature in your e-mail program.
• Your calendar program may reveal your activities for past days.
• Information you have deleted may still exist in memory (if the computer has not been turned off) or in virtual memory (the page file or swap file on the hard disk).
• Copies of e-mail messages you have sent or received may still exist on the server or on the sender’s or recipient’s computer.
• Backup tapes may contain copies of files even though you have deleted the originals.

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