Does BreachTrigger only cover public companies?

Yes, by design. SEC disclosure obligations, including Item 1.05, apply to companies registered with the SEC, roughly 4,000-plus reporting companies. Private companies do not file 8-Ks and are outside EDGAR entirely, so a breach at a private vendor will not appear in BreachTrigger's alerts unless a public company later discloses that the private vendor's incident affected it.

How is this different from just setting a Google Alert for a company's name?

A news alert depends on press coverage existing and being indexed, which lags the actual SEC filing by hours to days and misses many filings the press never covers at all. BreachTrigger reads the filing itself directly from EDGAR, the primary source, polled every 30 minutes, so the signal is not filtered through what a journalist chose to write about.

Can I use BreachTrigger to monitor my own company's filings?

You can watch your own ticker the same way you would watch any other, but BreachTrigger reads public EDGAR data after it is filed, it is not a compliance tool for determining whether your own incident is material or drafting your own 8-K. For your own disclosure obligations, work with securities counsel.

Does a filing under Item 1.05 mean the company admits fault?

No. Item 1.05 requires disclosure of a material cybersecurity incident's nature, scope, timing, and impact, it is not an admission of negligence or liability. Materiality and fault are separate legal questions; read the actual filing text rather than inferring intent from the fact that a filing exists.

SEC 8-K Breach Monitoring FAQ: 12 Questions for IR, MSSP, and Cyber Insurance Teams

Q: Is BreachTrigger a dark web or credential monitoring tool?

No. BreachTrigger does not scan the dark web, credential dumps, or stealer logs. It monitors SEC EDGAR for Item 1.05 material cybersecurity incident 8-K filings, the disclosures US public companies are legally required to make. If you need dark web or leaked-credential monitoring, that is a different category of tool entirely, and BreachTrigger does not compete in it.

Direct answers to the questions incident response firms, MSSPs, and cyber insurance underwriters actually ask when evaluating a way to track SEC Item 1.05 material cybersecurity incident 8-K filings.

Is BreachTrigger a dark web or credential monitoring tool?

No. This is the single most common misconception, and it is worth stating plainly: BreachTrigger does not scan the dark web, breach forums, credential dumps, or infostealer logs. It monitors SEC EDGAR for Item 1.05 filings, the mandatory disclosures a US public company must make within four business days of determining a cybersecurity incident is material. If your need is dark web or leaked-credential monitoring, look at that category of tool specifically, BreachTrigger is not built for it and does not claim to be.

What exactly counts as a covered filing?

Two filing types: Item 1.05 8-Ks, the mandatory material-incident disclosures, and voluntary Item 8.01 filings where a company discloses a cyber incident without asserting it meets the materiality bar. BreachTrigger distinguishes the two from the filing text itself rather than treating every cyber-adjacent 8-K the same way.

Does BreachTrigger cover private companies?

No, and it structurally cannot. SEC filing obligations apply only to companies registered with the SEC, roughly 4,000-plus reporting issuers. Private companies never file an 8-K, so they never appear on EDGAR. If a private vendor of yours is breached, the only way it would surface in BreachTrigger is if a public company later discloses that the private vendor's incident materially affected its own operations.

How fast is "same day"?

EDGAR is polled every 30 minutes. A filing accepted by EDGAR at 9:15am is typically caught in the next poll cycle, well within the same business day. This is faster than waiting for press coverage, which the SEC's own August 2023 rule announcement noted can lag materially, and it is sourced from the primary filing rather than a secondhand summary.

Is EDGAR data itself free?

Yes, completely. SEC EDGAR is a free public government database. What BreachTrigger charges for is not access to the data, it is classification (Item 1.05 vs 8.01), sector and ticker tagging, a one-line summary, and same-day push delivery instead of you polling and reading raw filings yourself. If raw free alerts are all you need, KFilings is a legitimate free option, see our honest comparison.

Can a filing be wrong, delayed, or amended?

Yes. Companies sometimes file an amended 8-K (Form 8-K/A) if the scope of an incident turns out to be larger than first understood, or if financial impact estimates change. Always check whether a later amendment exists for a filing you are acting on, and read the filing itself on sec.gov/edgar rather than relying solely on any third-party summary, including BreachTrigger's.

Does a filing mean the company was negligent?

No. Item 1.05 requires disclosure of a material incident's nature, scope, timing, and impact. It does not require, and a filing does not constitute, an admission of fault or inadequate security. Materiality is an investor-disclosure standard, not a liability finding, those are separate legal questions decided elsewhere, including in any subsequent litigation or regulatory action.

What happens if a company should have filed and did not?

The SEC has brought enforcement actions against companies for failing to disclose within the four-business-day window; penalties can include civil fines, cease-and-desist orders, and officer sanctions. BreachTrigger has no visibility into non-disclosures by definition, it can only alert on filings that exist. Suspected non-disclosure is a matter for regulators, not something a monitoring tool can detect.

Does BreachTrigger replace a SIEM or vulnerability scanner?

No, it is not that kind of tool at all. BreachTrigger has no visibility into your own network, logs, or infrastructure. It is exclusively an external-facing monitor of a specific public data source, SEC EDGAR, for disclosures made by other companies, useful for competitive intelligence, vendor risk, sales triggers, and cyber insurance underwriting, not for detecting incidents inside your own environment.

Is this legal, security, or investment advice?

No. Every alert links to the primary filing on sec.gov/edgar. Verify independently before acting on anything, including trading decisions, vendor risk determinations, or client outreach; you are responsible for your own conclusions and business decisions.

Legal disclaimer

This FAQ is informational only and is not legal, security, or investment advice. SEC rules and enforcement practice change; verify current requirements at sec.gov and consult qualified counsel for compliance or disclosure decisions.