HARTFORD, Conn. -- State officials said that more than 50,000 state residents, potentially affected by a security breach, will have state guaranteed identity theft protection.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell said the thousands of residents affected by a temporary lapse in identity theft protection will have any resulting losses covered by Debix Identity Protection Network, the company hired by the state last year.

The governor also said that Experian, a major credit bureau, has agreed to extend existing fraud alerts for a year for those residents.

The measures announced Wednesday resulted from a state inquiry of recent customer complaints over a change in the way Experian was handling fraud alerts it received from Debix.

The state hired the Austin, Texas-based Debix last year after a Department of Revenue Services laptop was stolen.

Experian recently notified certain Connecticut taxpayers that they would have to re-enroll for fraud alerts by providing confidential information – even though Debix, under a state contract, had promised to provide the fraud alerts for two years through the three national credit reporting agencies, including Experian.

Experian confirmed in writing today that, upon resubmission of a fraud alert request by Debix, it will renew the fraud alerts without further action by Connecticut taxpayers.