Are you protecting your customers from identify theft?

As a business owner you may be contributing to the growth of one of the fastest growing crimes in America.  And under new laws already enacted and more in the works you may be held responsible.

Identity theft increased more than 20 percent in 2008 according to the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel Network Complaint Data Book released in February.[1] It was the number one complaint category representing 26 percent of overall complaints with residents of Arizona California and Florida the most likely targets.  But according to other reports this crime is vastly under-reported. In fact Javelin Strategy & Research[2] reports that nearly 10 million American victims lost $48 billion due to this crime.  It’s one of the fastest growing crimes in America and if you’ve been a victim you know just how painful it can be.

Victims of identity theft can spend months or years and thousand of dollars cleaning up the mess the thieves have made of their good names and credit records. In the meantime they may lose job opportunities be refused loans for education housing or cars and even get arrested for crimes they didn’t commit according to the FTC.   Humiliation anger and frustration are among the feelings victims experience as they navigate through the process of rescuing their identities.

With the volume of electronic transactions increasing dramatically it is almost impossible to be in business and not collect or hold personal identifying information — names and addresses Social Security numbers credit card numbers or other account numbers –- about your customers employees business partners students or patients. The risk that personal identifiable information will be breached puts your customers at risk of identity theft.

To encourage businesses to address these risks several federal and state laws have been enacted and new laws are currently being considered. Penalties range from fines of $100 per violation (which means for each individual record!)  to loss of federal funding.