Member Article

Kaspersky Lab launches Kaspersky Protection Center – the easy way to manage security on multiple devices

Kaspersky Lab today announces the launch of Kaspersky Protection Center, a free web portal allowing customers to see the security status of their PCs, Macs and mobile devices protected by Kaspersky Lab products. In addition, the portal provides customers with access to Kaspersky Password Manager – a service that securely stores all customers’ passwords and syncs them across all their connected devices.

Based on the results of a globalsurvey conducted in June, by the B2B International research agency, an average household has 4.5 connected devices – PCs, Macs, smartphones and tablets. As people are using more devices, it becomes increasingly important to not only provide protection against cyberthreats, but also to conveniently manage that protection. With more and more devices in use, it is increasingly difficult to ensure that the security solution installed on each gadget is up-to-date.

The Kaspersky Protection Center was initially created to make it easier to manage protection across multiple devices by providing centralised access to each device. Customers can gain access to the portal simply by registering a personal Kaspersky Account, which can be created within any of the Kaspersky Lab solutions: Kaspersky Anti-Virus, Kaspersky Internet Security, Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac, Kaspersky Internet Security for Android, and Kaspersky Password Manager. Once created, the Kaspersky Account will be the single login and password needed to access the Kaspersky Protection Center.

Users of the portal can:

• View the protection status of all their devices on one webpage
• Manage the security and protection settings of all their Android devices from anywhere
• Easily manage Kaspersky Lab product licenses and activate security on any device
• Access additional online services such as Kaspersky Password Manager
• Easily access technical support

For example, owners of multiple devices can find out if their protection by Kaspersky Lab products is enabled or if the antivirus databases are updated on a particular device. Also, it is possible to remotely access the anti-theft features of Kaspersky Internet Security for Android. Customers with lost or stolen Android devices can remotely lock, wipe data, and track the location of their missing smartphone or tablet. New anti-theft features include the Mugshot feature, which secretly takes photos of whoever is using a stolen device and uploads those photos to the portal, and an Alarm function, which causes the device to emit a loud noise to help customers find their missing property.

The Kaspersky Protection Center makes it easy to manage licenses on multiple devices enabling users to renew licenses on each device, buy new licenses, or even transfer existing licenses from one device to another. For example, when customers purchase a new smartphone, they can simply transfer the remaining Kaspersky Lab license time from the old smartphone onto their new device by using the Kaspersky Protection Center.

Kaspersky Password Manager

In addition to the central management of licenses and security tools, customers also gain access to Kaspersky Password Manager, a service which enables customers to securely save passwords and synchronise their passwords between all devices. The Kaspersky Password Manager can also help users create new, secure passwords, and store and synchronise other important data, such as credit card numbers. Customers will either have their passwords automatically entered when visiting web sites*, or the Kaspersky Password Manager will display the required passwords to users on screen**. Either way, customers won’t need to worry about forgetting their passwords, and won’t be tempted to use easier but unsafe password practices, such as assigning the same password to all their online accounts.

In addition to storing passwords and financial data securely, the Kaspersky Password Manager can be used to create identity cards containing the personal information - including addresses and home phone numbers - that are often needed to fill in common online web forms, such as registration pages for online stores, and social networks. For PC users, this registration information can be automatically entered into the online forms, making online registrations and purchases much faster. The PC version of Kaspersky Password Manager also includes the Virtual Keyboard – a tool that reliably protects the master password used to access to all the other passwords stored in Kaspersky Password Manager.

Kaspersky Password Manager is available in either premium or free versions. In the free version of the service, the user can store login and password data for 15 accounts and one identity card - the number of accounts and identity cards is not limited in the premium version. All other features of Kaspersky Password Manager are available in both versions. As with other Kaspersky Lab products, licenses for Kaspersky Password Manager can be renewed or purchased via the Kaspersky Protection Center.

“Kaspersky Protection Center is our vision of how online security in a modern, multi-device era should be offered. This is a single interface for managing licenses and security features on all the devices which a person uses on a daily basis, along with extended convenience and protection offered by the Kaspersky Password Manager service. In future, we are going to increase the number of applications and services to make the virtual lives of people who use Kaspersky Lab products even more comfortable and secure,” said Dmitry Aleshin, Director of Product Management at Kaspersky Lab.

Kaspersky Protection Center is available to users in the US, UK and Ireland. The service will later be launched for users in other countries.

* Supported in Kaspersky Password Manager for PC and Kaspersky Password Manager for Mac

** Supported in Kaspersky Password Manager for iOS and Kaspersky Password Manager for Android

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Alice Collins .