What should I do in the first 48 hours after a data breach?

Treat the notice as real until you verify it on the company's own site, not an email link.1 Change the breached password and any reuse, enable MFA, and freeze credit at the three bureaus if an SSN, date of birth, or government ID was named.2 Watch bank and card alerts; ignore "breach help" asking for codes, passwords, or payment.

Frequently asked questions

Does the breach notice mean my address and phone are exposed too?

Not from the breach itself. A notice covers the company's own systems. Separately, people-search sites may already publish your address, phone and relatives from public records, and nothing the breached company does changes that. They're two different exposures with two different fixes.

When should I freeze my credit?

Freeze when the notice names a Social Security number, date of birth, government ID, or financial account details. Freezes are free at all three bureaus, take a few minutes each, and you can lift one temporarily when you apply for credit. A password-only breach usually calls for password and MFA work instead.

Does dark web monitoring remove my data?

No. Monitoring tells you something matching you appeared in a known leak set. It does not delete anything, and nobody can pull a record back out of circulation. Use it as an early warning, then do the work that actually reduces risk: unique passwords, MFA, and a freeze if identifiers were involved.

Can Delist remove my data from the breach or the vendor's systems?

No. We have no access to a breached company's systems, a vendor's databases, or any leaked archive. What we remove is the open-web listings that publish your name, address, phone number and relatives, which is a separate problem from the breach.

I only got a letter and nothing has happened. What now?

Verify it, do the password and MFA steps, and keep the letter. What to do when a company emails you about a breach covers reading the notice and spotting the phishing that follows a real disclosure.