A recent Gartner survey of public opinion regarding identity theft revealed that many consumers, “half those polled, either weren’t aware they were entitled to a free credit report or considered them ‘not effective’ in fighting ID theft” (quoted from this MSNBC article). The article goes on to say that about one-third of those polled were “very concerned” about becoming ID theft victims themselves. Perhaps the clearest result from the survey - entitled “Increased Phishing and Online Attacks Cause Dip in Consumer Confidence” - is that the free credit reports are nowhere near enough protection for consumers against the increasing threat of identity theft.

Enter in new legislation from two U.S. Senators, which joins a slew of other proposed legislation aimed at tackling the ID theft epidemic. Senators Specter and Leahy have recently put forth their own bill, which would establish penalties for not disclosing data breaches nationwide, as well as limit the sales of SSNs and increase consumers’ abilities to access the information data brokers have on them. This Reuters article describes the bill in a bit more detail.

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