A coalition of corporations, universities and federal law enforcement agencies on Wednesday opened the <A HREF="http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6088997.html?tag=zdnn.alert">Center for Identity Management and Information Protection,</A> whose mission is to research identity theft problems and solutions. The CIMIP will explore a range of identity theft topics, from its causes to the effect of regulatory action, to improvement in identification authentication systems. The coalition includes the FBI, the U.S. Secret Service, LexisNexis, IBM, Utica College, Carnegie Mellon University, Indiana University and Syracuse University.