One of the most challenging aspects of the modern, digital life is keeping on top of the latest trends in technology and the cyber threats that take advantage of them. Cyber security is ever evolving with the looming potential for exposure of personal data and passwords in data breaches a major concern. Identity theft is the main consequence of a breach and can also be linked to both personal and business devices getting hacked and even hit by ransomware. Resolving identity theft is never easy and once information gets exposed it can stay out there for years. This is where F-Secure’s ID Protection is of great value.
The ID Protection solution is a new addition to the F-Secure range that simplifies the process of finding and tracking breaches and doubles as a secure password manager. The service continues to monitor any given account for any new breaches and alerts users of incidents when they happen. F-Secure ID Protection is available on multiple platforms, namely MacOS, Windows, Android and iOS, allowing account sync between multiple devices.
Video: How F-Secure ID Protection Works
Not sure you need it? Check if your personal information has been exposed by following the link below and entering your email address. The details on the breaches that your account has been exposed to is emailed to the same address that you enter.
Has my account been breached?
F-Secure’s ID Protection provides the following features:
Monitoring:
- It protects both your own and your family’s personal information such as email addresses and credit card numbers against cyber criminals.
- It alerts you to any breached personal information whenever a subscribed service is hacked and what information has been leaked. It also provides guidance in the form or a list of recommended actions which vary based on the severity of the data breach.
The app gives you an easy way to make sure that the account credentials for subscribed online services, as well as your credit card details and other important information, stay safe and are conveniently accessible.
Vault:
- Password storage: Store all your passwords, login details, PIN codes, credit card details, and online banking credentials securely.
- Create passwords: Generate stronger, unique passwords for all your services and accounts.
- Password status: The app helps you to improve your passwords by grouping your passwords based on their quality.
- Autofill: Get your passwords automatically entered on login pages in your web browser to make it easier and quicker to access your account (not available on iOS versions).
- Sync: Synchronize your passwords securely across all your devices.
All information stored within the F-Secure ID Protection app is protected using AES 256-bit encryption for security and privacy and all of the users are anonymous to F-Secure with all encryption happening locally on the device that the app is installed onto. Once encrypted, decryption is only possible on the device itself.
Both the choice of encryption and safeguarding anonymity have been conscious decisions made by F-Secure to improve the security of the product and protect the privacy of their customers.
Encryption to store data
The data stored in the app is encrypted and decrypted only on your own device. Every time you enter your ID PROTECTION master password this password adds another layer of encryption as it is used to generate an encryption key that descrambles your encrypted ID PROTECTION data. This process is carried out by using the PBKDF2 (Password-Based Key Derivation Function 2) standard, which adds a salt (random data) value to the password and hashes the resulting data with the HMAC-SHA256 function. This process gets repeated 20,000 times.
Your master password and the master encryption key are never stored anywhere and the encryption keys exist only when you use the product. This level of security does mean that there is no way for F-Secure to recover your password or data for you if you forget the master password. F-Secure also does not track you when you synchronize your data across devices.