A user information database contains Personally Identifiable Information (PII), which is data that can be used to identify a specific individual. Due to its potential for misuse and legal protection requirements (e.g., GDPR, CCPA), PII is classified as both Sensitive and Private. Sensitive data requires a high level of protection against unauthorized disclosure, and Private data is information about individuals that is not public. Implementing security triggers is a technical control used to audit access and prevent unauthorized actions on such high-risk data, which is consistent with these classifications.

A. Public: Public data has no confidentiality requirements and would not necessitate special security triggers for protection.

B. Open: Open data is intended for unrestricted access and sharing, which is the opposite of protected user information.

D. Non-Sensitive: This classification is for data with low impact if disclosed and would not warrant the implementation of security triggers.

F. Encrypted: Encryption is a security control or a data state, not a data classification level. Data is classified first, then controls like encryption are applied.

1. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). (2010). Guide to Protecting the Confidentiality of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) (Special Publication 800-122). Section 2.2

"PII Confidentiality Impact Levels

" discusses how PII is categorized based on sensitivity and the potential impact of a breach

directly linking user information to the "Sensitive" concept.

2. Carnegie Mellon University

Information Security Office. Guidelines for Data Classification. This university guideline defines "Private" data as including names

email addresses

and other PII. It also defines "Sensitive" data as a category requiring a high level of security

which includes private data. This establishes the use of both terms for user information.

3. Oracle Corporation. Oracle Database Security Guide

21c. Chapter 1

"Introduction to Oracle Database Security

" discusses the importance of identifying sensitive data within the database to apply appropriate security controls. This aligns with the practice of classifying user information as sensitive to justify implementing measures like security triggers.