sign in sign up
<<
Home , Barbara Cegavske, Brad Raffensperger, Denise Merrill, Edward Buchanan, Elaine Marshall, Frank LaRose

NASS 2020 Winter Meeting Minutes: Business Services Committee

Minutes: NASS Business Services Committee Saturday, February 1st, 2020 , DC

Participants: Hon. , CT (co-chair) Hon. Frank LaRose, OH (co-chair) Hon. John Merrill, AL Hon. , AZ Hon. John Thurston, AR Hon. Alex Padilla, CA Hon. , CO Hon. Jeffrey Bullock, DE Hon. Laurel M. Lee, FL Hon. , GA Hon. , ID Hon. , IA Hon. Connie Lawson, IN Hon. , KS – by proxy Hon. Michael Adams, KY Hon. , LA Hon. Matt Dunlap, ME Hon. John Wobensmith, MD Hon. , MN Hon. Michael Watson, MS Hon. , MO Hon. Corey Stapleton, MT Hon. Robert Evnen, NE Hon. , NV Hon. Bill Gardner, NH Hon. , NM Hon. , NC Hon. Al Jaeger, ND Hon. , PA Hon. , RI Hon. Mark Hammond, SC Hon. Steve Barnett, SD Hon. , TN- by proxy Hon. Ruth Hughs, TX Hon. , VT Hon. , WA Hon. , WV NASS 2020 Winter Meeting Minutes: Business Services Committee

Hon. , WY (by proxy)

Secretary Merrill introduced Rebecca Longfellow, IACA President, Business Services Division Director, Office of Indiana Secretary of State, to provide an update on issues and topics to be discussed at the May 2020 IACA conference in Indianapolis from May 17-21, 2020. She noted that the conference will include sessions on the benefits of software quality assurance, the importance identity management, redaction and fraudulent filings, and a security session about safeguarding against wi-fi attacks. She highlighted the information sharing benefits of the conference and encouraged Secretaries of State to attend and to send their business services division directors.

Secretary Marshall, NASS Liaison to the ULC Advisory Board, provided an update on ULC activities. She noted that uniform laws provide clarity and consistency and help reduce uncertainty among states. She added that the ULC has addressed a number of issues familiar to NASS, including beneficial ownership, notarization, athlete agents, business entities, and UCC. She added that she would like to send a survey out to each NASS member office with questions related to the ULC. She encouraged NASS members to review ULC efforts and work closely with them on relevant projects.

NASS Executive Director Leslie Reynolds provided an update on NASS efforts to partner with the Federation of Tax Administrators (FTA) on an initiative that aimed to detect and mitigate trends in business identity theft. She noted that NASS and FTA developed a pilot project involving 5 NASS member offices (OH, MN, MT, RI, TX) to try and identify common data elements that could be submitted to an ISAC and analyzed to identify indicators of business identity theft. She noted following the initial exchange and analysis of data it became apparent that Secretary of State and tax revenue officed did not have enough data fields in common to allow for a large-scale data analysis. She urged states to consider a unique identifier for businesses across agencies, and building relationships with state revenue offices, because the revenue offices have information they do not share with Secretaries’ offices. She added that NASS could hold a workshop this summer if any states that are involved in projects along these lines would like to share about those efforts.

There was also a presentation by three states: IN, OH and NC on their individual efforts to thwart business ID theft. Secretary Lawson noted that Indiana implemented a fraud detection tool to address fraudulent online filings. She noted that the tool can recognize fraudulent filing attempts by any device by evaluating associated accounts or devices, past history, and suspicious behavior. She noted that the system sends data to a third party for review and gets a response with a signal to system to reject or accept the filing. She added that the tool also includes rules to identify if a device is associated with a stolen card, masking a location, associated with identify theft, denied filing from another device, or submitting filings at a high rate.

Secretary Marshall noted that most states don’t have the technology or authority to evaluate information submitted in filings. She added that uses several tools to identify potentially fraudulent filings and is currently evaluating rules for filings by specific devices. She added that states should consider NASS 2020 Winter Meeting Minutes: Business Services Committee if the ministerial role of filing officers has shifted and should be reevaluated in light of the escalation of business fraud and other issues.

Secretary LaRose noted that has an email notification system that provide an alert if changes are made to a business entity. He added that they use multifactor authentication for online user accounts, and noted the importance of states working together to prevent multi-state fraud activities

Jennifer McDowell, Director of Government Affairs, International Trademark Association (INTA) addressed the Supreme Court cases involving trademark issues. She noted that INTA is an association that works to represent brand owners and trademark professionals through advocacy, outreach, and online engagement. She added that INTA has worked with NASS in the past on trademark issues. She provided an overview of two Supreme Court cases that struck down significant parts of US trademark law (Lanham Act) that allowed for rejection of trademarks using colorful language/disparaging. She said the Court found the provisions to be unconstitutional. She noted that the impact of the Supreme Court decision on state laws that mirror the federal language that was struck down is a very complicated topic and states would need to evaluate their laws to determine if they should be changed at some point.

Secretary Merrill (CT) reported that tried to develop a business one-stop site for business filings several years ago but faced a number of challenges, including reluctance by other state agencies to share data. She noted that Connecticut is rolling out a business one-stop site this week with the short- term goal of having one website for business registration, and a long-term goal of providing a comprehensive site for filing with all state agencies.

Secretary Gorbea noted that ’s efforts to create a one-stop site ran into issues with receiving data from the state revenue agency because one of the databases they have interacts with the IRS. She said she would be interested in learning more about IRS rules and restriction that impact state exchange of data.

Secretary Merrill said she would like NASS to consider holding a workshop at the summer conference to hear more about state efforts to develop online business portal, including, issues, challenges, and lessons learned.

The meeting adjourned at 11:15 PM.