Guide · the first hour

Laptop stolen? The founder's first hour

If your company runs on one laptop, its theft is not an IT problem. It is every account, key and customer at once. Breathe, take your phone, and do these in order. Most take two minutes each.

1. 1.Your email first, from your phone

   Change the password and sign out all other sessions. Your inbox resets every other password, so it goes first.

2. 2.Lock and erase the laptop

   Find My (icloud.com/find) or Find My Device on Windows. Lock it now. Erase it once you know it is not coming back.

3. 3.Your password manager

   Sign out every other device and change the master password. If you use an emergency kit, get it out now.

4. 4.Payment keys

   Roll your Stripe (or other payment) API keys. A live payment key can refund, pay out and read your customers.

5. 5.Cloud and AI keys

   AWS: deactivate access keys and check for new IAM users. AI providers: revoke keys and lower spend caps to near zero for the day.

6. 6.Code and hosting

   GitHub, Vercel, Cloudflare and others: revoke sessions, tokens and SSH keys. Look for new team members and new deploys.

7. 7.Domains and DNS

   At your registrar, check the transfer lock is on and nothing in DNS changed. Losing a domain means losing email and every password reset.

8. 8.Money

   Check payout settings and bank transfers. Freeze cards that were saved in the browser. Call the bank if anything looks wrong.

9. 9.Write it down

   What happened, when, what you changed. You need it for the police report, the insurer, the bank and any customer you must tell.