Know your identity theft exposure before it turns into cleanup.
A 3-minute assessment that scores your exposure across credit, digital, recovery, and habit risk — then gives you a prioritized plan you can actually use this week.
Free score · No scare tactics · Premium tracker $4.99/month or $39/year
- Free action steps included
- Answers stay on your device
- Clear recommendations, not hype
- Mobile-friendly and beginner-friendly
Pricing
The score and your action plan are free. Premium adds continuity — not a paywall on the basics.
Free
$0
Always
- Full exposure score and risk band
- Sub-scores across all four risk areas
- "What's driving your score" explanation
- Top fixes + what-can-wait list
- Conditional blocks for suspicious activity and credit applications
Premium tracker
$4.99/month
Cancel anytime
- Everything in free
- Score history + trend chart
- Monthly re-check workflow
- Saved personalized checklist with progress
- Credit-application mode
- Identity recovery vault + incident log
- Downloadable protection plan PDF
The basics, plain English
Quick context so the recommendations above make sense — and so you can spot bad advice elsewhere.
Credit freeze vs. fraud alert
A freeze blocks new accounts from being opened in your name and is free at all three bureaus. A fraud alert is lighter — it just asks lenders to verify identity. If you're not actively applying for credit, a freeze is the stronger move.
What identity protection services can — and can't — do
Paid monitoring is good at noticing changes faster than you would on your own. It can't prevent a breach, and it doesn't replace a freeze, 2FA, or unique passwords. Use it as an early-warning layer, not a primary defense.
What to do right after suspicious activity
File a report at IdentityTheft.gov first — it generates your official affidavit and a step-by-step plan. Then call the issuer of the suspicious account, then place a fraud alert. Document every call.
Why some people only need the free steps
If your credit is frozen, 2FA is on, you use a password manager, and you check statements monthly, you've already done the heavy lifting. Premium tracking helps you stay there — it's not a requirement to be safe.
Identity exposure, explained in depth
Background for the recommendations above — so you understand what the score is measuring, why these four risk areas matter most, and what credible US sources say about the basics.
What "identity exposure" actually means
Exposure is the surface area a criminal would have to work with if they targeted you tomorrow. It is not a prediction — it is an estimate of how much friction stands between an attacker and a successful account takeover or new-account fraud.
Two people with identical income and credit scores can have very different exposure: one has a credit freeze, hardware-backed 2FA, and a password manager; the other reuses one password across email, banking, and taxes.
Why these four categories
Each category captures a distinct way identity loss actually unfolds:
- Credit-file risk — what a thief can open in your name.
- Digital exposure — what they can hijack that you already own.
- Recovery readiness — how fast you can shut things down if it happens.
- Habit risk — the quiet, daily behavior that decides whether a small breach becomes a months-long cleanup.
What the FTC and CFPB actually recommend
The Federal Trade Commission's IdentityTheft.gov and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau both center on the same four moves:
- Place a security freeze at all three bureaus.
- Enable two-factor authentication on critical accounts.
- Pull your free reports at AnnualCreditReport.com.
- Act fast on anything unfamiliar.
Paid monitoring is helpful as an early-warning layer — not a substitute for those four.
How the score is calculated
Each answer contributes points to one or more of four categories. Categories are weighted by how much each one drives actual financial loss in US identity-theft cases: credit-file risk is weighted most heavily, then digital exposure, then recovery readiness, then habit risk. Flags — like recent suspicious activity or an upcoming credit application — can shift you into a higher band even at the same raw score.
The math is deterministic and explainable. The "What's driving your score" section names the specific answers contributing the most points, so you can see exactly where the number came from. Nothing here is opaque, and nothing here is a credit pull.
Who this is for — and who it isn't
A good fit if you
- · Got a breach notice and aren't sure how worried to be
- · Are about to apply for a mortgage, auto loan, or apartment
- · Want a plan you can finish this weekend, in plain English
- · Don't want another monthly subscription unless it earns it
Not the right tool if you
- · Need active fraud monitoring across bank accounts — that's a different product
- · Are responding to active fraud right now — file at IdentityTheft.gov first, then come back
- · Need a credit-repair service for collections or charge-offs (not what this is)
How to use this tool
- Answer the credit-file questions
Whether your credit is frozen at all 3 bureaus, recent inquiries, and any new accounts you don't recognize.
- Answer the digital-habits questions
Password reuse, MFA on email/banking, breach notifications you've received in the past year.
- Add your recovery-readiness picture
Whether you have IRS IP-PIN, frozen ChexSystems/NCTUE files, and an identity-theft contact list saved.
- Flag any recent triggers
Breach notices, unfamiliar mail, suspicious calls, or login alerts. These weight your score heavily.
- Read your score and prioritized action plan
Free actions are ranked first by impact-per-minute. Premium tracking is optional, not required.
Expected timeline: 3 minutes for the assessment. The top 3 actions (freezes, IP-PIN, password manager) take a combined 30–45 minutes and drop most people's exposure score by 20+ points.
- Answer honestly — overstating protections gives you a falsely low score and the wrong action plan.
- A credit freeze is not the same as a fraud alert. The plan tells you which you actually need.
- Monitoring catches fraud after it happens; this score is about preventing it in the first place.
Common questions
What does the Identity Exposure Score actually measure?
It blends four things — your credit-file controls, your digital habits, your recovery readiness, and any recent exposure triggers like breach notices or unfamiliar inquiries. It's an educational estimate based on your answers, not a live scan of your accounts.Is this the same as identity theft monitoring?
No. Monitoring tries to catch fraud after it happens. This tool helps you see your exposure before it turns into cleanup — and gives you a prioritized list of free moves to lower it. Monitoring can be a useful add-on, but it isn't a substitute for the basics.Do I need to pay for the premium tracker to get value?
No. The score, the explanation, and the action plan are free. Premium ($4.99/month) is for people who want to track changes over time, keep a saved checklist, and get monthly re-check reminders.Why do you ask about upcoming credit applications?
Because the timing matters. If you're about to apply for a mortgage or auto loan, credit-file integrity matters more than anything else this month — so the score weights it more heavily and the action plan reorders itself.Will my answers be stored or shared?
Your answers stay on your device unless you ask us to email your action plan. We don't sell your data and we don't run a background credit check.