When digital harm happens, knowing what to do next matters.
The Defend Foundation builds public-interest technology and provides practical guidance to help people navigate digital harm and take meaningful steps toward remediation.
Start with a step-by-step Guide
AI-generatedOur mission
Everyone deserves the tools to take action against digital harm.
The Defend Foundation exists to help people prevent, navigate, and remediate digital harm through practical guidance, tools, and support.
More about the FoundationWhere to start
Get Help
Dealing with fraud, identity theft, a hacked account, or something you're not sure about? Find out what to do next, and who can help.
Get HelpStay Safe
Want to protect yourself before something happens? Take practical steps to protect your credit, your tax identity, and your personal information.
Stay SafePrivacy Center
Want to understand your privacy rights and options? Find official privacy tools, rights, and resources for where you live.
Privacy CenterDefend Network
Building a network of verified organizations and professionals to help people navigate digital harm.
Defend NetworkGet Help
Practical help, one step at a time
You don't need to know exactly what happened to begin. Get Help brings the Foundation's practical tools together, so you can start wherever fits your situation and move at your own pace.
Start from what happened
Choose the kind of situation you're facing, such as a scam, a hacked account, or identity theft, to see the relevant Guides and official resources.
Follow a step-by-step Guide
Guides put the steps for a common situation, such as a scam, a hacked account, or identity theft, in order, with links to the official places to take them.
Find someone to help
Talk one-on-one with a nonprofit victim-support organization.
Privacy Center
Your privacy rights and options, where you live
Privacy laws, and the rights and tools they give you, depend on where you live. Privacy Center helps you find the official ones for your location, and where to go to use them.
Open Privacy CenterWhat you can do there
Search for where you live, or browse the U.S. locations Privacy Center covers.
Find the official privacy rights, tools, and resources for that place, and the official place to go to use them.
Each location lists the privacy resources Defend's research found, and says what we know about each one.
General information and official links, not legal advice. Defend doesn't contact anyone or send anything for you unless you review the request and authorize it.
Research and publications
Resources
Explore the Foundation's research and publications, including The Digital Safety Brief, the Blog and the Cybercrime Harm Index.
What we're building
Public-interest infrastructure for responding to digital harm
Information alone isn't enough when harm happens. The Foundation is building shared infrastructure that people and institutions can rely on. It brings together a network of verified help, a way to carry a person's authorized request to the organization that can act on it, and independent public intelligence on cybercrime harm.
Defend Network
In developmentConnecting people with organizations and professionals the Foundation verifies for the specific kinds of help they provide.
Explore the Defend NetworkRemediation Execution Network
In developmentRemediation infrastructure that carries a request a person has reviewed and authorized to the organization that can act on it, through the Foundation's Remediation Network Protocol.
Cybercrime Harm Index
In developmentThe Cybercrime Harm Index is Defend's public intelligence initiative to measure the scale and impact of cybercrime. It is currently in development, and we'll share it here as it becomes available.
How we work
A nonprofit, built in the public interest
The Defend Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Everything it builds is held to these commitments.
About Security & PrivacyYour information stays with you
Guides and the Privacy Center work without an account, and your answers stay in your browser tab. We build Defend around collecting as little as possible, for only as long as it's needed.
Official sources, with their dates
Our guidance points to the official places to go, such as government agencies and the companies involved, and shows when its sources were last checked.
You decide what is sent
Defend doesn't contact anyone or send anything for you unless you review the request and authorize it. No AI system can authorize a request for you.
Verification can't be bought
Payment, sponsorship, or donations never buy an organization's verification, ranking, or place in the Defend Network.
Support the Foundation
Your support helps The Defend Foundation build public-interest technology and expand practical tools, guidance, and resources for people affected by digital harm.