Or so reports the Better Business Bureau, which in 2004 declared that a stolen purse or wallet was still the leading route to identity theft for American consumers. Most identity theft arises from stolen personal documents rather than data housed or transmitted electronically.

Sheila Gordon, director of victim services at the Identity Theft Resource Center suggests what and decent investigator knows implicitly - that dutiful use of a cross-cut shredder can keep one out of a great deal of trouble. Gordon also offers a number of other positives steps consumers can take both to ward off potential trouble as well as suggestions of how to act quickly to minimize the damage when a theft has occured.

Some states do a better job than others of protecting their residents. For example, as Choicepoint's incremental response to their own data theft showed, California has had an active law on the books since 2003 (SB 1386) requiring prompt notification of consumers in the event of a potential i.d. theft. This law has it's roots in a 2002 incident in which, hackers cracked the state payroll database and acquired personal information on over 250,000 state employees. At the time it took a month for for the theft to be discovered and another two weeks before the victims were informed.

For a run-down of the California law's requirements...see this link (PDF). In California, consumers can also lock down their credit reports, so that new accounts require a PIN number. Other states also have pending or are considering similar laws, including: Louisiana, Vermont, Texans, Oregon, Connecticut, Massachussets, Illinois and a half-dozen others.

-- MDT

Labels: database, identity theft, Louisiana