The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has compiled resources on how to protect personal information from identity theft. The articles, business alerts and supplementary guides provides tips on how businesses can protect the personal information they collect and acquire custodial obligations over, how to conduct a data security audit, mobile and remote computing considerations and more.

Protecting Personal Information: Five Steps for Business

Take Stock: Conducting a Data Security Audit in Your Office

Scale Down: Why Less is More When Securing Sensitive Information

Lock It: Protecting Your Office from Info Thieves

Pitch It: Give Personal Info the Shred Carpet Treatment

Plan Ahead: How a Security Response Plan Can Help Your Business Expect the Unexpected

The Lowdown on Laptops: Data Security for the Road Warrior

Protecting Personal Information – Know Why

Slip Showing? Federal Law Requires All Businesses to Truncate Credit Card Information on Receipts

Download a copy of the Protecting Personal Information: A Guide for Business and play the interactive tutorial.

There are a growing number of legislative initiatives that have passed and others that are in process that address consumer and business concerns on identity theft. Visit the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 page on our site, for information on the legislation that calls for the improvement of consumer records and the business obligation to protect consumer information from threat of identity theft.

Additionally, get to know the Identity Theft Red Flags Rule; the final rules of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003. The final rules require each financial institution and creditor that holds any consumer account, or other account for which there is a reasonably foreseeable risk of identity theft, to develop and implement an Identity Theft Prevention Program for combating identity theft in connection with new and existing accounts. Visit the Red Flags Rules page on our site, for more information on how businesses can protect their information assets and how to provide notice of address discrepancies.

A summary of the tools available on the newly launched FTC Red Flags Web site is available on our site which includes a downloadable copy of Fighting Fraud with the Red Flags Rule: A How-to Guide for Business.