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Identity theft bills to come up in Assembly

Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2005

Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. plans to ask the legislature to pass two bills in the upcoming session to help protect personal identification from being stolen.

One bill would require businesses to notify customers immediately if their personal identification information has been stolen. It also would require companies to take security measures such as computer encryption and shredding documents.

The other bill would allow people to instruct credit bureaus to restrict access to their credit rating reports to make it harder for identity thieves to open new credit card and bank accounts in another person’s name.

‘‘I am outraged at the somewhat cavalier attitude of many businesses with regard to how they protect your personal information,” Curran (D) said.

The problem is, however, identity protection bills have moved at a glacial pace through the legislature even as identity thieves adopt new methods and adapt new technologies at a rapid pace.

For the past three legislative sessions, Del. Shane E. Pendergrass tried to pass a bill to require companies to keep people’s Social Security numbers more secure.

‘‘It’s a small step in solving a big problem,” said Pendergrass (D-Dist. 13) of Columbia.

Her bill finally passed through the legislature only to be vetoed by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R), much to her frustration.

‘‘We had worked with the privacy advocates and the insurance company advocates,” Pendergrass said of her efforts.

Want to weigh in? Call the legislative task force at 800-492-7122 or e-mail libr@mlis.state.md.us.

Instead, Ehrlich signed a different bill that created a task force to come up with a comprehensive solution to identity theft instead of ‘‘piecemeal” measures, said Del. Susan C. Lee (D-Dist. 16) of Bethesda, who is leading the task force with Sen. Ralph M. Hughes (D-Dist. 40) of Baltimore.

‘‘It’s a pretty complicated problem and it’s one of the fastest-growing crimes in the nation right now,” said Lee, a lawyer. ‘‘It’s very devastating on the victims.”

The task force will hear testimony from government, police, financial institutions, consumer protection groups and others. The task force, which has 10 members and seven vacancies, will hold a series of hearings across the state next year and issue a report by Dec. 31, 2006.

Curran called the legislative task force important, but said any recommendations would not go before the legislature until 2007.

‘‘We can’t wait that long,” he said.

The problem of ID theft seems to be growing more quickly than state and federal laws can keep up with it, Lee said.

Robert Siciliano, author of ‘‘Identity Theft Pandemic: Curing the Identity Theft Virus,” said public officials should shift the emphasis from protecting privacy to requiring companies to keep data secure.

‘‘Companies have no incentives to protect our data,” Siciliano said. ‘‘They operate with little mind for security because little punishment befalls them should breaches occur.”

‘‘It seems every year there’s a new twist on how identity can be stolen,” said Del. Carol S. Petzold (D-Dist. 19) of Rockville, a co-sponsor of the task force bill with Lee.