Californians possess several new weapons in their fight against identity theft starting today -- laws aimed at deterring the crime and helping consumers cope if they are victimized.

In the most far-reaching of the three measures, state agencies and businesses operating in California would have to disclose to consumers any breach in computerized credit data, such as credit card or Social Security numbers.

The other laws give victims access to free monthly credit reports for one year and place new controls on issuance of two crucial documents, birth and death records.

"The (computer) security breach bill is most important," said Linda Foley, executive director of the Identity Theft Resource Center in San Diego. "When there is a breach of information that includes sensitive, identifying information, those breaches typically affect hundreds of thousands of people in one fell swoop."

The bill stemmed from an attack on a computer in the state's Teale Data Center in Rancho Cordova in 2002 that involved access to payroll information Social Security numbers for 265,000 state workers.

Although it remains unclear whether the data were misused, nearly six weeks passed before employees were notified.

If California consumers obtain an identity theft report from police or the state Department of Motor Vehicles, they will qualify for free monthly copies of their credit reports for a year because of the law authored by Sen. Liz Figueroa, D-Fremont.

The protection gives state residents much greater access than provided nationally in an overhaul of federal consumer credit-reporting practices.

Treasury Secretary John Snow on Monday touted a plan to give ID theft victims access to one free credit report yearly and for a national alert system to guard against misuse of financial data.

Nationally, an estimated 380,000 complaints of identity theft were filed last year, according to the Federal Trade Commission, and roughly 30,000 of them came from California.

State residents will find the monthly access to credit history a huge help, said Shelly Curran, policy analyst for the Consumers Union in San Francisco.

"When you find out you've been a victim, often thieves will establish one account and then another account at another time," said Curran. "This is really going to allow people to keep track of fraudulent accounts that have been set up."

The law comes too late to help Bill and Judy Steiner of Sacramento, who were victimized in the mid-1990s.

But Steiner, who serves as spokesman for the Sacramento office of the IRS, notes that the credit bureaus were pivotal in helping him track the cause of his identity theft.

His credit union account was pilfered when a thief plucked outgoing bill payments from his home mailbox. The checks were washed with acid and rewritten as withdrawals for some $2,000.

Now, Steiner said, his credit reports remain on alert with the reporting agencies, meaning they must call him whenever a charge is excessive or if new credit is opened.

He and his wife have canceled all but one credit card.

"If you had a whole bunch of cards and wanted to continue using them, then having a monthly report would probably help you keep track of what's on those cards," said Steiner.

Also in the lineup of California's latest laws is one requiring individuals who want birth and death records to swear under oath that they are authorized to receive the records.

Those authorized include family members or domestic partners, certain attorneys, law-enforcement agencies and funeral directors.

Information copies of records will be stamped to show they are not official copies and cannot be used for identification purposes.