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1 – Understanding Sensitive DataThe crime of stealing a person's identity can begin with the disclosure of dataas seemingly as innocent as a person's name and birth date. This informationmay be all that is needed to identify one John Smith from the million otherJohn Smiths. With that information in hand, other identifying data could beobtained through research, hacking and social engineering efforts. Ultimately,the "hacker" may use this information to obtain fraudulent forms of identityverification, such as a passport, credit card, or driver's license.Terrorists, illegal immigrants, and criminals often deflect suspicion byassuming the identity of unsuspecting law abiding citizens. It is through theprotection of sensitive data that the efforts of the identity thief are confounded.The livelihood of the person that is the subject of the sensitive data is oftendependent upon the methods employed to secure sensitive data in the database.PrivacyOne of the cornerstones of a free society is the freedom of an individual toreveal or withhold personal information in a selective manner. It is through thisselective disclosure that we protect ourselves from false accusations from otherpersons or governmental entities. This Privacy also allows freedom of speechand individual thought to prevail.Without this protection, any action that a person takes, and every statement thata person makes, can easily be taken out of context and used to damage theirreputation, or potentially threaten their freedom.In October 1998 the European Commission issued the Directive on DataProtection that restricted the sharing of personal data with countries that do notcomply with their standard for privacy protection. Later, the United StatesDepartment of Commerce and the European Commission formed the SafeHarbor Network to aid organizations in attaining compliance of privacypolicies.Data that is considered private is not limited to identifiable data but alsoelectronic communications, documents, memos, medical histories, performancereviews, purchasing history and other similar data that is stored in a database.The protection, access and retention of this sensitive data are critical elementsof the Database Administrator's responsibilities.National SecuritySome of the most sensitive information concerns national security. Disclosureof such information to the wrong people can threaten a country's stability, orpossibly even its continued existence. Military information is typically the first22