California's new law requires banks, government agencies, e-commerce firms
             and others to notify customers if thieves target their computer systems
             (Block, 2003). "The goal is to give consumers information they need to
             protect themselves," says Palo Alto Assembly Member Joe Simitian, co-
             Many of California's identity theft laws benefit the customer, For
             instance, credit bureaus must enable consumer to establish a "freeze,"
             prohibiting the credit bureau from giving report to anyone without the
             consumer's consent (Privacy Rights, 2003). An identity theft victim who
             provides the credit bureau with a copy of a police report is entitled to 12
             free credit reports, one per month, in the 12 months from the date of the
             police report. Normally, customers would have to pay for this service. In
             addition, California law requires banks and other savings companies to
             cooperate with identity theft victims. These companies must provide on
             request of law enforcement or of an ID theft victim copies of applications,
             checks, account statements, and records of transactions initiated by an
             There are also laws that protect the security of personal information,
             including social security numbers and driver's license numbers (Privacy
             Rights, 2003). In addition, a sworn statement is required for issuance of
             certified copies of birth or death records. Many times consumers complain
             that this information is hard to change or replace; however, in the long
             run, they benefit from strict identity theft laws.
             In 2003, the state of California passed an identity theft law, SB 1386,
             several cases of identity theft were perpetrated by individuals who had
             stolen confidential client data from SANS Security Essentials (Bass, 2003).
             This breach in security came at a time when California legislators had
             already enacted a variety anti-identity-theft laws. SB 1386 responded to
             the increasing problem of identity theft in California,...