Our goal is to use this space to educate our community about issues relevant to identity theft; the long-time in coming Red Flags Rule has finally been enacted into law and we will be doing our best to help weed through—“What does it mean?”
We’ll start with the good news for many of our clients—thanks to the diligence of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), and other groups, the language of the Red Flag Program Clarification Act of 2010 signed by the president on December 20th narrowed the definition of creditor to exclude professional firms that often to not receive full payment at the time service is rendered. The AICPA and the American Bar Association dropped their lawsuits, leaving the FTC free to enforce the fule.
The Red Flags rule requires creditors or financial institutions with covered accounts to implement a written identity-theft prevention program. The program should identify and detect signs of identity theft in a client’s normal course of business and spell out appropriate actions they will take when they detect red flags. Creditors would include entities that loan money, such as banks, finance companies, automobile dealers, and mortgage brokers, but many other businesses and nonprofits will be subject to the rule.
In the coming weeks, we’ll be doing our best to help clarify.
In the meantime, be assured that on-site shredding is an integral part of ensuring data security for any business. For more information visit www.hvshred.com
