Been Hacked? The 72-Hour Playbook for HNW Victims

Full transcript

0:10 Today I want to talk about what happens when you get hacked and what you need to do in the first 72 hours to protect yourself and preserve your legal options.

0:20 I know this is a traumatic event. The panic is real. The fear is real. Someone is inside your life your accounts, your network, your family's financial future.

0:32 But time is of the essence. The actions you take right now determine whether you can recover the financial losses.

0:40 I'm Max Dilendorf, founder of Dilendorf Law Firm in New York.

0:44 We are counsel of record in more than 130 complex cybercrime arbitration matters against Coinbase, Gemini, Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, and others.

0:58 Phones hijacked. Ransomware locking entire systems.

1:02 Crypto drained from exchanges. Bank accounts emptied. Domains stolen.

1:08 Over a million dollars gone before the client even realizes what happened.

1:13 In 2025, Americans lost $20.9 billion to cybercrime. FBI complaints crossed one million for the first time. Cryptocurrency losses alone reached $11.3 billion.

1:28 If you are a high-net-worth individual, a family office principal, or a founder your exposure is real. Here is exactly what you do.

1:38 First contain the breach. Secure every device. Lock every financial account that has not been compromised. Stop the bleeding before you do anything else.

1:48 We get former FBI and DOJ agents on the phone within minutes. Not days. Minutes.

1:55 Second depending on the nature of the breach, complete digital forensics of affected devices could be critical.

2:07 targeting your exchange account is different from a full network compromise.

2:11 But when the breach involves hacked network, or destroyed devices our forensic team can be on site within 24 hours, image the hardware, preserve metadata, and pull data from hard drives that hackers tried to destroy. Hard drives still retain data at the binary level. Ones and zeros.

2:33 Our forensic team pulls that data out.

2:39 Third freeze your credit immediately. Experian. TransUnion. Lock everything.

2:45 Fourth send data preservation letters to every institution carriers, exchanges, cloud providers demanding they preserve evidence before logs are deleted. After 30, 60, 90 days depending on retention policy, that evidence is gone. Fifth file your IC3 report with the FBI.

3:07 You need it for documentation and arbitration. But understand the reality. The FBI receives 3,000 complaints per day. They are not going to investigate your individual case.

3:19 The IC3 report is for documentation. Not enforcement.

3:23 Don't wait for the FBI. Don't wait for local police. Cybercrime cases are recovered legally, not investigatively. That is the work that we do.

3:34 If your case involves ransomware we have a standby first-response team. Former DOJ and FBI agents who intervene immediately. Threat-actor communication. Federal coordination. Regulatory disclosure.

3:48 We also navigate your cyber insurance. Most policies have hard reporting windows.

3:54 Missing them is how clients lose six- and seven-figure coverage.

3:59 If your domain was hijacked UDPR proceedings, transfer disputes, registrar escalation. They work but only if filed quickly.

4:09 If you intend to bring a claim we move to compel records from Google, Apple, Yahoo, GoDaddy.

4:17 IP histories. Session logs. Geolocation of every login. These companies do not cooperate voluntarily. The subpoenas must be drafted precisely. Every misstep costs weeks. Weeks cost evidence.

4:35 Get the right professionals involved.

4:41 We document the access trail. We build the record that becomes the arbitration filing.

4:47 Our team responds nationally. On site within 24 hours in major metros.

4:54 The first 72 hours decide whether your case exists or not. Don't spend them waiting. Spend them building the case that gets you whole. I'm Max Dilendorf. Stay sharp.

A transcript of the recording, so it reads as speech rather than as prose. It explains the law in general terms and is not advice on your own situation, which turns on facts this video cannot know.