Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen recently signed legislation intended to fight identity theft in the state.

The new law, previously HB3403, took effect July 1. It creates the offense of identity theft trafficking. It also requires all Tennessee businesses that maintain records containing customers’ personal identifying information to destroy the information before discarding the records, the Memphis Business Journal reported.

Such personal information would include medical records, credit card or debit card account information, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers and dates of birth.

The new law requires businesses to shred, erase or modify personal information in such a way to make it unreadable before disposing it.

Not destroying records in a proper manner could result in a fine between $500 and $10,000 per occurrence.