Protecting your identity…before it gets stolen. Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America...and there's plenty of advice available on how to prevent it. The Federal Trade Commission…at FTC.gov has an online brochure titled Deter, Detect Defend. A company called LifeLock is offering what appears to be a unique type of defense. CEO Todd Davis…

"The way we're able to stop these crimes from occurring, is we actually go out and place fraud alerts with both the three major credit bureaus and with a consumer reporting agency called Check Systems. So now anytime anyone is going to apply for credit or do something to affect your credit score, I don't mean everytime you swipe your card at the gas station or grocery store, but anytime anyone is trying to open a new line of credit, you actually have to phone call first and give them verbal authorization that it's you making that request."

The service costs 10 dollars a month or a hundred ten dollars a year. Subscribers also receive copies of their credit reports four times a year. Davis says he is confident to publicly divulge his social security number…and offers a million dollar reimbursement for any damages or losses suffered by subscribers due to identity theft. Davis says LifeLock's advantage over other identity protection services…is its ability to prevent it from happening in the first place. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.