The U.S. government has taken several steps to combat ID theft during the past two years. Increased prosecutions of criminals and decreased use of Social Security Numbers to identify constituents. The number of ID theft prosecutions increased 27% between fiscal year 2006 and 2007. The FTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission have also investigated cases involving ID theft. In the past year, the FTC brought six new enforcement actions against companies that allegedly failed to take reasonable measures to protect sensitive consumer data, bringing the total of FTC data security cases to 20.”]