Clear Path steps
Every step, in the order we'd take them
These are the steps behind the Clear Path, grouped by stage. Each one says what to do, how to check it worked and why it matters. Your own path puts them in order for your home or business and sizes them to your week.
For home
Solid ground for everyone
The few habits that protect your logins, money, photos and name, and that every later step builds on.
- Lock the email account that resets everythingSet once · About 15 min
- Agree on a family safe word and the callback ruleSet once · About 15 min
- Put one password manager in chargeSet once · About 30 min
- Turn on automatic updates everywhereSet once · About 20 min
- Turn on phone backup and check it ranSet once · About 10 min
- Freeze your credit at all three bureausSet once · About 30 min
Logins that are hard to steal
Passkeys, clean recovery details and a locked phone number, so a stolen password or a moved number stops being enough.
- Add passkeys to the accounts that hold the restSet once · About 30 min
- Close the back doors: fix account recoverySet once · About 30 min
- Lock your phone number to your phoneSet once · About 15 min
- Clear out reused, leaked and forgotten accountsSet once · About 45 min
- Put two hardware keys on your most important accountSet once · About 30 min
Money moves only when you decide
Alerts, callbacks and simple payment rules that catch problems early and leave rushed requests with nowhere to go.
- Get an alert for every transaction and every changeSet once · About 15 min
- Hang up on 'your bank' and call the number on your cardOngoing · About 10 min
- Treat instant payments, crypto and gift cards like cashOngoing · About 10 min
- Run the 'met online' check before investing anythingOngoing · About 15 min
- Use card controls and virtual card numbers onlineSet once · About 20 min
- Set a budget and an approval step before AI pays for youSet once · About 20 min
Memories kept in two places
Find every photo, keep a copy outside your main account, and prove you can get it back.
- Find every place your photos actually liveSet once · About 30 min
- Keep a second copy outside your main accountSet once · About 60 min
- Make one copy that ransomware and sync mistakes can't reachSet once · About 30 min
- Prove it: restore a handful of old photosOngoing · About 20 min
- Turn on end-to-end encryption for your photo library where offeredSet once · About 20 min
Your name stays yours
Freezes, claimed government accounts and fewer public details, so it's much harder for anyone to open accounts or tell a convincing story in your name.
- Claim your government accounts before someone else doesSet once · About 45 min
- Freeze the files the big three don't coverSet once · About 20 min
- Remove your household from people-search sitesSet once · About 60 min
- Give every sign-up its own email addressOngoing · About 20 min
- Get ready for a digital ID on your phoneOngoing · About 15 min
Kids who come to you first
Controls that fit their age, a frozen credit file and a promise that telling you never gets them in trouble.
- Set up your kids' devices with controls you understandSet once · About 30 min
- Tell your kids they will never be in trouble for telling youSet once · About 20 min
- Freeze your child's creditSet once · About 45 min
- Share less about your kids in publicOngoing · About 20 min
- Find out which AI chatbots and companions your kids talk toSet once · About 30 min
- Set up your teen's first real accounts properlySet once · About 30 min
Independence with a safety net
Rules your relative helped make, screened calls and a bank that knows who to call, without taking over.
- Start with a conversation and agree the family rulesSet once · About 30 min
- Turn on call screening and carrier scam blockingSet once · About 20 min
- Put a 'when a call feels wrong' card by the phoneSet once · About 15 min
- Set up bank alerts and a trusted contact togetherSet once · About 45 min
- Freeze their credit and claim their government accountsSet once · About 60 min
- Plan for the day they need more helpSet once · About 60 min
- Give remote help only on calls your relative startsOngoing · About 20 min
Cameras on your terms
Lock the router and camera accounts, decide what gets recorded, and keep smart gadgets away from the devices you bank on.
- Take control of your routerSet once · About 30 min
- Lock down camera and smart-home accountsSet once · About 30 min
- Decide what your cameras see, keep and shareSet once · About 20 min
- Put smart devices on their own networkSet once · About 45 min
- Buy devices that will keep getting security updatesOngoing · About 10 min
AI that works on your terms
Choose what your assistants keep and reach, lock the account, and make them ask before they act.
- Check what your AI assistants keep, learn and rememberSet once · About 30 min
- Agree what never goes into a chatbotOngoing · About 15 min
- Lock the AI account like you lock your emailSet once · About 10 min
- Never act on an AI's phone number, link or money advice without checkingOngoing · About 10 min
- Review what your AI can reachSet once · About 20 min
- Make your AI ask before it sends, buys, shares or deletesSet once · About 15 min
- Check what your AI companion keeps, and know its red flagsOngoing · About 20 min
Devices that stay yours
Strong passcodes, theft protection, encryption and safe installs, so a lost phone or a fake download doesn't open everything else.
- Give every phone a strong passcode and keep it privateSet once · About 5 min
- Turn on theft protection and know how to erase a lost phoneSet once · About 10 min
- Install only from official stores and never paste a command a website gives youOngoing · About 10 min
- Encrypt computers and use an everyday account without admin rightsSet once · About 30 min
- Replace devices that no longer get security updatesSet once · About 30 min
- Keep work and home on separate sides of the screenOngoing · About 30 min
A way in for your family
An account map, legacy contacts and a sealed kit, so the people you trust can reach what matters if you can't.
- Write an account map, not a password listSet once · About 45 min
- Name legacy contacts on the platforms that offer themSet once · About 20 min
- Set up emergency access in your password managerSet once · About 20 min
- Make a sealed recovery kitSet once · About 30 min
- Write down what should happen to your digital life, including your voice and likenessSet once · About 20 min
For business
Accounts you know and control
Name an owner, list what you have, and put strong sign-in and a password manager on all of it, domain included.
- Name an owner and map what you'd loseSet once · About 60 min
- Move the business onto business accounts on your own domainSet once · About 240 min
- Put phishing-resistant sign-in on email and every admin accountSet once · About 90 min
- Turn on your email system's safety settingsSet once · About 90 min
- Move the team onto a business password managerSet once · About 120 min
- Lock your domain and stop others sending email as youSet once · About 90 min
Your industry's rules and risks
The key steps your field's regulations, clients and usual scams call for, on top of the basics. They start compliance; they don't replace it.
- Secure your business social media and ad accountsSet once · About 30 min
- Know your breach-notice duties before you need themSet once · About 45 min
- Do the HIPAA risk analysis, and include your AI toolsSet once · About 240 min
- Get a BAA before any vendor, including AI, touches patient dataSet once · About 90 min
- Give the front desk a verification scriptOngoing · About 45 min
- Plan how you'll see patients if the systems go darkOngoing · About 90 min
- Set rules for AI scribes and ambient listeningSet once · About 60 min
- Check the Safeguards Rule and write your WISPSet once · About 240 min
- Verify clients without trusting a face or a document aloneOngoing · About 60 min
- Harden for tax season before it startsSet once · About 60 min
- Move client documents off email and into a secure portalSet once · About 90 min
- Keep card data out of your systemsSet once · About 60 min
- Lock down the store admin, staff accounts and pluginsSet once · About 60 min
- Protect customer accounts from credential stuffingSet once · About 45 min
- Give staff a stop rule for gift cards, refunds and 'head office' callsOngoing · About 20 min
- Prepare your store for AI agents that shopSet once · About 45 min
- Know whether you hold FCI or CUI, and draw the boundarySet once · About 240 min
- Keep CUI in a cloud environment that meets DFARS 7012Set once · About 240 min
- Keep the SSP, POA&M and SPRS score honest and currentSet once · About 180 min
- Be ready to report a cyber incident to DoDSet once · About 90 min
- Keep CUI out of AI tools that aren't authorized for itSet once · About 45 min
- Announce that leaders never ask for gift cards or payments by messageSet once · About 15 min
- Give every staff member and volunteer their own accountSet once · About 120 min
- Secure the giving platform and watch for card testingSet once · About 45 min
- Protect member directories and livestreamsSet once · About 30 min
- Apply your safeguarding rules to digital contact with minorsOngoing · About 45 min
- Tell clients at the start that you'll never change payment instructions by emailOngoing · About 30 min
- Separate client data and delete it after the engagementSet once · About 90 min
- Be ready to answer client security questionnairesSet once · About 120 min
- Match your AI use to what each client allowsSet once · About 60 min
No money moves on one message
A callback to a known number and a second approver, so a convincing email, voice or video can't move money on its own.
AI used on your terms
A one-page rule, approved tools, controlled connections and limits on agents, so the team gets the help without handing over the data.
Open for business on Monday
Patch what faces the internet first, back up the cloud too, and prove you can restore.
A team that's hard to fool
Short monthly briefings, blame-free reporting, same-day offboarding and real checks on new hires and vendors.
A plan before you need it
A one-page incident plan, less data to lose, and customers who know how you'll really contact them.