Secretaries of State Urge States to Develop Business ID Theft Preventions, Detection and Assistance Resources

WASHINGTON, DC – A new white paper designed to help state officials curb business identity theft is now available online. The National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) today announced the release of a white paper entitled, "Developing State Solutions to Business Identity Theft: Assistance, Prevention and Detection Efforts by Secretary of State Offices." Compiled with input from leading public and private sector experts on identity theft issues, the paper is the result of efforts by the 19-member NASS Business Identity Theft Task Force to develop policy guidelines and recommendations for state leaders dealing with identity fraud cases involving public business records.

"States need to be thinking about practical measures that can protect against unauthorized access to their business filings and alert business owners to illegitimate changes," said Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler, national co-chair of the NASS Business Identity Theft Task Force. "Highly organized criminals want to exploit these records to steal corporate identities for the purpose of opening up false lines of credit and retail accounts, and the damage to victims' credit history can take years to recover from."

During a 2010 investigation chronicled in the white paper, Gessler's office in Colorado discovered that 300 entities had fallen victim to identity thieves, with total losses exceeding $3.5 million. The same year in Georgia, one case alone involved the use of more than 3,900 individual and business identities to conduct more than $5 million in fraudulent transactions.

Drawing on the direct experiences of these Secretary of State offices that have dealt with business identity theft cases, the NASS white paper offers insights on common issues that states face in developing strategies to protect information in public records and thwart fraud. The report also contains a series of basic recommendations that all states can follow to help prevent the spread of business identity theft, including:

• Creating a statewide task force to study business identity theft issues
• Developing a legislative and procedural action plan for protecting state-held business records
• Establishing a notification program for businesses when public records are updated or changed
• Implementing clear steps for victim assistance and education
• Conducting outreach to raise awareness and urge prevention

"This is a very difficult crime to prosecute and many states have not yet established a strong legal basis for such efforts," noted North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, co-chair of the NASS Business Identity Theft Task Force. "Therefore, Secretaries of State can play a vital role by reaching out to the business community and providing advice on how to protect a business identity through the proactive monitoring of business records."

The NASS white paper is the by-product of the NASS Business Identity Theft Forum held in October 2011. Hosted by Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp in Atlanta, the event brought together the members of the NASS Business Identity Theft Task Force with cyber security and identity theft protection experts, law enforcement representatives, consumer advocates and other leading stakeholders from throughout the U.S.

Event sponsors taking part in the NASS forum and supporting the production of the white paper include: DataStream Content Solutions, CT Corporation, Dun & Bradstreet, the Identity Theft Protection Association, INVISUS, Kaspersky Lab, Inc., LifeLock, NIC and Shred-It.

"We are grateful to our forum sponsors and the members of the NASS Business Identity Theft Task Force for what they have achieved through the development of this groundbreaking white paper," said NASS President Beth Chapman of Alabama. "NASS remains committed to working with all stakeholders to ensure that states are able to implement safeguards against business identity theft scams and new forms of assistance for both law enforcement and victims."

Founded in 1904, the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) is the oldest nonpartisan, professional association of public officials in the United States. Members include the 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa and Puerto Rico.  NASS serves as a medium for the exchange of information between states and fosters cooperation in the development of public policy. The association has key initiatives in the areas of elections and voting, state business services and digital archiving, as well as several well-established awards programs.

Download the NASS white paper on business identity theft at www.nass.org.

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