Pihos Identity Protection Bill Passes Both Chambers

(Posted 5/31/2009) - A bill requiring local and state agencies to implement ways to protect Social Security Numbers and other important information has passed both chambers, said the bill’s sponsor, State Rep. Sandy Pihos (R-Glen Ellyn).

“In an age when technology makes it so much easier for someone to steal someone’s identity, we have to improve the way we handle Social Security Numbers and other personal information,” Pihos said. “This bill creates new measures to limit how Social Security Numbers are used and stored in our local and state agencies.”

House Bill 547 creates the Identity Protection Act by requiring state and local agencies to develop and implement a Social Security Number (SSN) protection policy and training program by July 2010. Under the training program, state and local agencies will limit the amount of employees that have access to SSNs and all employees will undergo sensitivity training to protect SSNs. Unless mandated by state or federal law, state and local governments should only use the last four digits of SSNs when possible.

The bill was created because a report by the Social Security Protection Task Force identified numerous discrepancies in how Social Security Numbers were handled by local and state government. The task force determined that many local governmental entities were disclosing documents with Social Security Numbers and many municipalities did not have a policy in place to protect those documents.

Pihos also recalled an incident a few years ago where a local governmental entity was mailing information to senior citizens and their social security numbers were printed on the mailing labels. Illinois ranks 12th in the nation for incidences of identity theft and 10,080 Illinois complaints were filed with the Federal Trade Commission in 2006. “I urge the Governor to sign this bill into law so that we can protect the identities of residents in Illinois,” Pihos said.

Here is a link to the original news release (in PDF format).