NY Lawmakers To Hold Hearing On Identity Theft

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The New York Legislature is taking aim at identity theft.

A state Senate committee will hold a hearing Thursday in Albany to learn more about the problem and the best ways to protect consumers and their personal information.

The hearing comes after a massive breach at the credit monitoring firm Equifax exposed sensitive information belonging to 143 million Americans, including 8 million New Yorkers.

Thursday's hearing was scheduled before the Equifax breach, but the massive cyberattack has focused more attention on identity theft and the need to safeguard information such as Social Security numbers, birthdates and drivers' license numbers.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (SHNEYE'-dur-muhn) has opened an investigation into the Equifax breach to determine what happened. He's asking other credit monitoring firms to report on their security measures.