What to Do After a Data Breach — and Where Aura Fits Next to IdentityTheft.gov

Do not start in the shopping cart

Two different events get sold as the same panic. A credential dump means an email and password (or worse, an SSN) appeared in a breach corpus. Account takeover or new-account fraud means someone is already using that data. Aura is built to alert and to help after the second class of event. It does not un-publish the dump. The first hour is still yours: unique passwords, session logouts, and the FTC's recovery process if you believe you are already a victim.

Equifax 2017 is the cultural scar: about 147 million people's data, then a decade of monitoring ads. The durable public advice did not become 'buy the loudest dashboard.' It became freeze, unique passwords, and official recovery if something is already wrong.

IdentityTheft.gov is the spine

If you suspect identity theft in the U.S., the FTC's IdentityTheft.gov process is the start: a recovery plan, affidavits, and the letters many banks and bureaus still expect. A vendor specialist can walk beside that process. They should not replace the official plan with a branded PDF you cannot use elsewhere. GUIDEORA is not the FTC.

Passwords, sessions, and reused logins

If the breach is passwords, change the unique password on that site and every site that shared it. Turn on a real password manager. Log out other sessions. Aura's included password manager can help if you had none. If you already have a vault, use that vault — do not fork the recovery kit into two apps on the worst week of the year.

Credit files, freezes, and tax refunds

If SSNs or credit headers leaked, consider a security freeze at Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Pull your official files at AnnualCreditReport.com — not a random 'free score' ad. If you file U.S. taxes, an IRS identity-protection PIN is a separate, high-leverage step against refund theft. Aura's Experian lock is not those three freezes and is not an IP PIN.

• IdentityTheft.gov if you believe accounts were already opened or taxes were already filed in your name.
• Unique passwords and session logout for dumped logins.
• Three-bureau freeze if new credit is the fear.
• IRS IP PIN if you file U.S. returns.
• Then decide whether Aura's ongoing watch and restoration phone line are worth a subscription.

Where Aura can still earn its keep after a breach

Aura can keep scanning for the next dump, watch inquiries, lock Experian from the app, help with a child's freeze paperwork on Family, and put a U.S. remediation specialist on the call list. Insurance-style coverage may apply to eligible losses if you later document a case — read the certificate; GUIDEORA will not promise a check. Data-broker removal can reduce some future spam. None of that retroactively deletes the first breach.

A calm week-one list

Write down what leaked. Fix passwords. Decide freeze versus not. Open IdentityTheft.gov if fraud is already happening. Shop Aura only after that list, as a watch-and-walk-through layer — not as the official process.