According to the Federal Trade Commission, there are an estimated 10 million U.S. identity theft victims each year. When new accounts are being opened using sensitive personal information, consumers spend an average of 77 hours to resolve the resulting problems. Overall, consumers spend 297 million hours annually resolving the problems created by identity theft. S. 1178, the Identity Theft Prevention Act, addresses these unpleasant facts of financial life. The legislation imposes an obligation on those who hold sensitive data to safeguard that data, requires notice to the consumer when safeguards have failed, and gives all consumers a tool to use proactively to prevent the new account form of identity theft.