Identity Theft Task Force: Robust Measures to Combat Identity Crime

By Eric Hartwell

In America, President Bush established a task force on identity theft in 2006. This was comprised of 17 federal agencies and departments and is in the process of developing robust and reliable strategies to fight identity theft which will help both the government and private individuals to track, and report identity theft and other online crime and apprehend identity theft criminals.

Already recommendations have been produced to help fight the threat of identity theft. These mark a the beginnings of a concentrated effort on the part of the government in the US to fight the growing threat of identity theft which has led to many millions of victims and many billions of dollars of financial loss.

Amongst the proposals are measures that will:

- Provide help and advice to agencies when they fear their personal data has been breached or is at risk of being breached

- Adopt a universally accepted police report for victims of identity theft to aid the process of reporting and following up identity crime

- Help and advise victims of identity theft, many of whom fear financial ruin and severe personal loss

- Reduce the likelihood of Social Security numbers being accessed by identity thieves, ensuring that illegal misuse of this data is minimised

- Develop new authentication of identities and identification data

- Develop a more reliable and robust security network in the government

- Improve the response to breaches in government data theft

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