U.S. government fights ID theft

Identity theft is a major problem, but the federal government maintains it has been working hard to crackdown on the violators. A government report said the Department of Justice increased the number of ID theft prosecutions by 27 percent between fiscal year 2006 and 2007. It also said the Federal Trade Commission brought six new enforcement actions against companies that allegedly failed to take reasonable measures to protect sensitive consumer data, bringing the total of FTC data security cases to 20.

In March 2007, the Securities and Exchange Commission launched an effort to combat spam-driven stock market schemes and to protect investors from fraudulent email campaigns hyping small-company stocks. Since then, the number of spam complaints reported to the SEC's online complaint center has dropped by 50 percent. Despite this progress, the report said, "the dynamic and rapidly changing nature of identity theft'' means that the struggle to protect consumers' personal information will be an ongoing battle.

For more on these developments:
- check out Computerworld.com article

Related Articles:
New rules target ID theft
Notification laws have not cut ID theft
Are you dealing with identity theft?