Increase safeguards on identity theft.

Byline: GUEST VIEWPOINT By Laura Etherton For The Register-Guard

Tell me if you've heard this one. An employee at the Department of Veterans Affairs took home files of veterans' personal information, including names, addresses and Social Security numbers. Then it was all stolen.

As a result, 26.5 million veterans are now vulnerable to identity theft.

This story sounds familiar to people in Oregon, where just a few months ago Providence Home Services announced that more than 350,000 current and former patients' medical records, Social Security numbers and other personal information on a laptop computer were stolen from an employee's car.

VA Secretary Jim Nicholson has been quoted as saying, `There is no indication at all that any use is being made of this data or even that they know that they have it.'

It gives little comfort to veterans to hear that no one in charge can say where this sensitive information is now, or what may happen to it. The thief may keep the information for a few months or years before using it to open up accounts in veterans' names. Employees should never be able to leave a building with such sensitive information.

These incidents are part of a troubling trend. Security breaches are happening too often and putting too many at risk of identity theft.

For example, ChoicePoint, an Atlanta-based data broker, sold sensitive records on 145,000 consumers to an identity theft ring - something that recently earned the company a $10 million fine. Bank of America lost data tapes with more than 1.2 million customers' personal information. MasterCard, in the largest known incident in terms of the numbers of individuals affected, breached the credit card information of 40 million consumers.

These flagrant breaches are unacceptable. Greater security must be afforded to consumers' private information.

Many states are responding by giving citizens and consumers a set of basic rights to help protect themselves, and requiring companies and other entities to do a better job protecting personal information.

For example, 23 states now require companies, government agencies and other institutions to notify consumers and law enforcement immediately of any data security breach. This allows law enforcement to respond quickly and alerts potential victims to take action, such as monitoring their credit reports.

In addition, 13 states now give consumers the right to put a `security freeze' on their credit reports. This is the only tool proven to stop identity theft in its tracks, blocking would-be thieves from getting credit in the victim's name.

With a security freeze, a consumer can block access to his or her credit report through the use of a personal identification number, or PIN. A security freeze does not hamper a consumer's ability to use existing credit, or seek new credit, as a consumer can temporarily remove the freeze by using the PIN.

The 2005 Legislature failed to enact these and other needed protections against identity theft. Giving Oregonians strong protections and rights to fight identity theft should be at the top of the list of things to get done in the next session.

The good news is that in the interim, State Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, has already started holding committee hearings on the issue. And in March, Gov. Ted Kulongoski called on the Legislature to put in place tough consumer protections, including the right to a security freeze and immediate notification.

Now, with every outrageous breach reported, let's remind Oregon's legislators to bring home a victory against identity theft in 2007.

Laura Etherton is a consumer advocate with the Oregon State Public Interest Research Group. OSPIRG offers more information and a list of 10 tips to reduce the risk of identity theft at www .ospirg.org/reports/tenidthefttips.pdf.