BATON ROUGE - Secretaries of State from more than a dozen states are re-establishing the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) Task Force on Business Identity Theft, an initiative dedicated to tackling the spread of identity-related fraud.

The original task force ended its work in 2012. Last month, NASS Business Services Committee recommended re-establishing the task force after hearing reports about a wave of identity theft crimes against businesses.

North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine F. Marshall and Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate are co-chairs of the task force.

“As attempts to hijack business identities have increased and grown more sophisticated in North Carolina and other states, this task force can play an important role in coordinating information-sharing and responses," Marshall said.

Members of the task force include Secretaries of State from Iowa, North Carolina, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, and Pennsylvania.