New York's Westchester County has enacted a law designed to limit identity theft by forcing local businesses to install basic security measures for any wireless network that stores customers' credit card numbers or other financial information.

The law also requires that businesses offering Internet access -- coffeehouses and hotels, for example -- post signs warning that users should have firewalls or other security measures.

As he signed the bill, County Executive Andrew Spano said the county had been unable to find any law like it in the country and had received inquiries about the legislation from other states and from Great Britain, South Korea and the Czech Republic.