The Rockland County Clerk?s Office is taking proactive steps to protect residents against identity theft.

A special computer software program is being used to scan more than 7 million documents in the county clerk?s file. The purpose of the program is to find anything that resembles a Social Security number. Once found, the sensitive information will be blacked out from computerized images ? available on the office?s public computer terminals and on the Internet.

?We don't know of any cases of identity theft that have derived out of my office or any county clerk's offices in the state,? said Rockland County Clerk Paul Piperato. ?This is a proactive stance that we're taking. There are several counties in New York state that are now doing it."

Piperato said it will take about six months to search through all the documents. The computer software will be used on documents dating as far back as 1985 and as far ahead as 2010.