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Lawmakers Clueless as to How to Stop ID Theft NewsMax.com WiresWASHINGTON -- Executives with several firms that endured recent security breaches encouraged Congress on Wednesday to strengthen regulations governing consumer information, but lawmakers expressed frustration in their search for a way to curb identity theft. After listening to representatives of ChoicePoint of Alpharetta, Ga., and other data brokers talk about the necessary intricacies of any legislation, one member of the House Financial Services Committee said he feared things could get complicated. Story Continues Below "To try to determine the manner breached, the remedy breached, all these kind of things is going to be extremely difficult," said Rep. Michael Castle, R-Del. The difficulty in crafting legislation doesn't seem to be partisan. Democrats and Republicans alike stress that something must be done to curb breaches at firms specializing in customer privacy. In February, ChoicePoint disclosed that information about 145,000 customers may have been stolen, making them susceptible to identity theft. There was widespread agreement on the panel that two federal laws applying to financial information should be expanded to include nonfinancial data. The Gramm-Leach Bliley Act sets privacy and security obligations for financial institutions, and the Fair Credit Reporting Act limits the circumstances under which a consumer's information can be released. More controversial, however, are proposals that would ban the release of full Social Security numbers. ChoicePoint vice president Don McGuffey warned that submitting only a few digits of the number sometimes presents "false positives," causing people to be mistaken for someone else. At the least, McGuffey said, there should be some uniformity among companies regarding whether the first five digits or last four are the ones published. Castle suggested a law dictating that was needed, and McGuffey seemed to agree. "I think mandating an appropriate set of rules is going to be good for the industry," McGuffey said. Although most of witnesses, including representatives of Bank of American and Lexis Nexis, said they supported some national reporting requirements in the event a breach occurs, there wasn't a consensus on what kind of breach should spark the requirement. "The question is what is the trigger?" said Kurt Sanford, president and CEO of Lexis Nexis corporate and federal markets. "Do we do that where there is just a breach in the system, or do you need some evidence that breach can create a potential harm?" Sanford and others said there was a risk of flooding consumers with mailed notifications, making them numb to the most serious threats.
© 2005 The Associated Press
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