The Australian government is discussing with the states and territories how to extend access to the Document Verification Service to more private sector organisations in a bid to clamp down on identify theft.Identity documents that can be verified using the service include birth, marriage and change of name certificates; citizenship certificates; driver's licences; Medicare cards; passports and visas.Attorney-General George Brandis said that, at present, 23 private sector organisations were active users of the DVS commercial offering, although a further 160 applications to use the DVS had been approved. He said early private sector users included telecommunications companies and financial services, and a few thousand verifications had already taken place.Speaking at Sydney's Cebit technology conference yesterday Brandis cited a survey conducted by the Australian Institute of Criminology which found that a fifth of Australians had suffered theft or misuse of their identity.Five per cent had suffered a financial loss, with an average cost of $4000 per incident, although there was a broad range of losses from $1 to $300,000 reported."This should be a call to action for all of us," said Brandis. He said that there would likely be an expansion of the private use of the DVS for applications including e-conveyancing, utilities and "working with children" checks.