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ATLANTA, GA -- Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp met with his fellow secretaries of state in Atlanta this week to collaborate on solutions to aid in the prevention and detection of business identity theft.

Secretaries of state oversee state business records and filings on behalf of their states, and the data that their agencies are required to collect can offer a gateway to business identity theft. The Georgia Secretary of State’s Corporations Division is an administrative filing agency and does not have legal authority to investigate or prosecute suspected criminal activity. Further, since filing records are subject to disclosure under open records laws, the state is limited in its ability to control who can access these records.

Secretary Kemp stated, “Business identity theft is a serious problem that it is rapidly expanding. I want to thank the National Association of Secretaries of State for bringing its members together so we can be proactive on this issue. It is my hope that our discussions at this forum will lay the groundwork for solutions to protect businesses from this type of crime and identify safeguards for protecting state-held data.”

The National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) hosted the first-of-its-kind forum on how to protect businesses from identity theft from October 16 to 18, 2011, in Atlanta. Secretaries of state and senior state business division leaders from 20 states met with leading experts from the public and private sectors to discuss solutions for awareness, prevention and detection of business identity theft. 

Kemp served as a panelist for a discussion on how to assist victims of identity theft. He spoke about Georgia’s efforts to implement e-government solutions to combat corporate identification theft, raise awareness among business owners and financial institutions about this growing criminal activity and work with law enforcement agencies to help prosecute those responsible for theft and fraud.

The forum also included a discussion on the nature of business identity theft, how it occurs, trends in cybercrime and the risks to businesses as well as panels on fostering intergovernmental coordination and the policy implications of business identity theft for state officials.

Based on the discussions at the forum, NASS will produce a white paper that identifies the tools and strategies that states can use to effectively protect businesses from identity theft.