Here in Connecticut identity theft has been a concern of the Town Clerks for quite some time. As a result access to their repositories of birth and death certificates has been has been denied to the general public, and is available only on a need to know basis. In view of the federal governments concern with terrorists establishing false identities and the shake up and reorganization of the intelligenge community this past week, perhaps an effort to lobby the state governments for supplemental local legislation may be in order. ..something similar to Connecticut's prohibition on circulation of birth and death certificates, but extended to land records, tax assessment and tax collection records in each court house or town hall.

The problem with loan applications and credit information is a more difficult problem, I think. It will involve both federal and state intervention since both governments seem to have an interest in chartering the banks and mortgage companies. It may just be a problem of no one having brought the out sourcing problem and exportation of sensitive personal information to the attention the
appropriate authorities. As part of the reorganization of the itelligence community the federal government is moving towards a uniform national standardization of drivers licences to avoid
their falling into the hands of terrorists. For a while there was even some discussion of not issuing licenses to foreign resident aliens which ultimately could not be enacted. It would appear that there is a legitimate concern about having all of this information so readily available on the internet.

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