SEPTEMBER 14, 2006 | Some of America's largest and most influential business groups yesterday announced formation of a new group that will develop and promote the implementation of standards for preventing identity theft.

The American National Standards Institute and the Better Business Bureau system said they are enlisting major corporations in a variety of industries to create a single resource of standards and guidelines that companies can use to prevent identity theft and fraud. The initiative, called the Identity Theft Prevention and Identity Management Standards Panel (IDSP), has nine founding members: AT&T, Citi, ChoicePoint, Dell, Intersections, Microsoft, Staples, TransUnion, and Visa USA.

The group has given itself 12-18 months to come up with a comprehensive, cross-sector set of requirements and best practices...