Identity theft is mostly paperwork. Here's the order to do it in

Someone opening an account in your name feels like a crisis, and it is a real problem. But the fix is mostly a sequence of reports and requests, and doing them in the right order saves weeks.

This section covers credit freezes and fraud alerts, what a data breach letter actually means for you, how to read your credit reports, and the official reporting route through IdentityTheft.gov in the U.S. We also cover tax-related identity theft, medical identity theft and children's credit files, which are often missed until someone applies for something.

Because breaches are constant, our news feed here follows security reporting on data exposures. A headline about a breach is a reason to check your accounts, not a reason to panic.