Identity theft complaints doubled in 2002, according to the Federal Trade Commission, with approximately 163,400 Americans reporting an act of identity theft. Imation Corp., a worldwide leader in removable data storage media, today addresses the rising identity theft incidences and advises PC owners to backup their digital information on removable data storage media.

This is especially important following tax season. The Internal Revenue Service reported that nearly 47 million Americans filed their taxes online in 2002. If this valuable information is left on a computer's hard drive, it could become available to hackers through the Internet and, as always, a possible target for computer viruses.

'The recent FTC statistics corroborate the importance of data storage. We at Imation urge everyone out there, from large corporations to small businesses to PC owners, to backup your data on removable media. Whether your information is saved on tape, floppy disk, CD or DVD, having a backup copy will save you a lot of time, effort and money if disaster occurs,'says David Ferraresi, vice president and general manager, Imation's Personal Storage Media business.

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