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TL;DR
- Bitdefender's all-in-one family plans provide a Password Manager to strengthen online security, and parental controls to help monitor the online activities of your kids and keep them safe
- There are dedicated modules to protect against identity theft and online scams of all kinds, as well as strong core anti-phishing protection
- Bitdefender's Safepay browser represents a highly secure way to conduct online banking or shopping, and Bitdefender provides a raft of features to better maintain your online privacy, and to defend your family from being spied upon
Individual security is one thing, but when you have a family to think about as well as your own devices – with family members who have differing levels of tech expertise, not to mention levels of naivety – you need broader coverage.
That's why Bitdefender offers a specific range of all-in-one family security plans which are equipped not just to deal with the large number of devices that may be present in your household, but also the diverse needs of the owners of that hardware.
This article will show how Bitdefender Total Security Family plan, or the beefier Bitdefender Premium Security and Ultimate Security Family plans, can protect the members of any household very effectively.
A single plan can deliver coverage for your family of up to five members, and up to 25 devices between them, including PCs (Windows and Mac) and mobiles (Android and iOS). This amounts to a single all-in-one solution to cover your whole family's digital lives, and here are eight key examples of how Bitdefender will keep them safe and reduce the risks they're exposed to, from the young through to older family members.
1. Bitdefender Password Manager – a better way than scraps of paper
All of Bitdefender's Family plans offer a Password Manager service, and this is a very safe way to easily maintain multiple passwords without resorting to insecure practices like writing them down.
It's quite possible that you have a more old-school family member who still insists on keeping the passwords for their various online accounts jotted down in a small notebook. (Or worse still, on scraps of paper floating about in a desk drawer, perhaps – or Post-it notes stuck to their monitor).
Clearly this is a risky business for so many reasons. There's always a chance that a visitor to the house might opportunistically snoop, or worse still, if you're burgled, the thief will get away with all the keys to this family member's online life, too.
With a password manager on tap, not only are these dangers eradicated, but Bitdefender will doubtless apply far stronger and more secure passwords to their various accounts.
Bitdefender Password Manager is fully cross-platform and works across PCs (as a browser add-on) or mobile devices, protecting all the passwords therein with military-grade encryption, requiring just a single master password to secure an entire digital life. You can also save payment card details securely in Bitdefender's Password Manager.
2. How about parental controls – does Bitdefender keep the kids safe?
While the web can be an entertaining and educational place for children, there are obviously dangers out there in terms of content you wouldn't want your kids to see, and this is where Bitdefender's parental controls do indeed keep them safe from harm.
You can't personally watch your kids for every minute they're at a screen, and when you aren't in the room, it's possible that they'll stumble across something that's unsuitable for their age – for example, an inappropriate video on YouTube. Bitdefender's parental controls system – which is provided with all Bitdefender plans – can be set to limit access to YouTube, or to filter Google searches.
Device usage and internet access can be restricted to certain time periods, and you can filter the content that a child can access by various categories (blocking gambling sites, for example). There's a lot of fine-grained control here and you also get a full report on where your child's been on the internet (and any sites that were blocked which they tried to visit, too).
3. Guarding against identity theft
Having your identity stolen is one of the biggest risks of online life these days, but Bitdefender offers a host of features to prevent this from happening which are collectively known as Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection.
This is a service that benefits those who sign up for the Bitdefender Ultimate Security Family plan, covering each family member. It provides dark web monitoring, so if any of your family's details appear on the dark web (or elsewhere online), you'll be alerted. With data breach notifications delivered in real-time, as security incidents happen, you'll also know immediately if a family member's account is involved in a leak.
This is a great example of how Bitdefender really tightens the security of your family's online life. Without Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection, if a data breach happens, you may not know about it at all until the compromised company emails you, or you hear about the breach in the news.
However, with Bitdefender's identity protection feature active, it'll warn you up front, so you can immediately take remedial action, such as changing the account password and otherwise making the situation secure (Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection will also proactively recommend other actions to take).
As part of Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection, Bitdefender keeps a record of the data available online on your family members (and yourself), as well as an Identity Protection Score that rates your overall level of security against ID theft. Or indeed it'll show you how secure other family members are, so if your teenager, say, is skating on thin ice in this respect, you can address that problem.
4. Scamio Pro – the AI-powered anti-fraud feature that everyone could use
Online scams are a growing threat, not just increasing in numbers, but also in sophistication, which is why Bitdefender has a dedicated AI assistant incorporated with the Bitdefender Premium or Ultimate Security Family plans.
Scamio Pro is part of the Bitdefender Scam Protection Pro service, and it's an AI which you can chat with about anything pertaining to device security. If anyone in your family isn't sure about a link, or whether a message might be a scam, they can simply ask Scamio Pro.
This is particularly good for less tech-savvy family members, as they can ask even general questions about online security, getting useful advice from Scamio Pro (which can also proactively share online safety tips). It's even possible to check if videos are deepfakes by taking a screenshot of the clip and sharing this with the AI, which could be an invaluable tool in unmasking a scam.
Scam Radar is another part of Bitdefender Scam Protection Pro, and this monitors for scams in your local area, warning you ahead of time about their nature and content, so you – and your family – can better guard against them.
5. Staying safe from phishing
Everyone in your family – yourself included – could be vulnerable to phishing, and all of Bitdefender's security plans offer strong levels of protection against this type of threat.
Phishing is an umbrella term referring to a broad range of attacks that are often delivered by email or text aiming to steal credentials or data from the victim, hence the term – the attacker is putting bait out there and 'fishing' for this information, hoping to get a bite.
For example, you may get a message claiming you're due a refund from a retailer – and if you take that bait and click the link provided, you'll be sent to a fake website that looks like this company. Of course, if you log in here, the attacker will then have your account details.
Bitdefender can help you, or any family member, avoid getting caught out like this thanks to its core anti-phishing protection that automatically blocks any known (or suspected) phishing websites.
That's provided with the Bitdefender Total Security Family plan, but if you're subscribed to the Bitdefender Premium Security or Ultimate Security Family plan, you also get additional defenses from the Bitdefender Scam Protection Pro service that's just been mentioned. This protects your webmail accounts (Gmail or Outlook) from phishing messages (or indeed other scams).
For mobile devices, Bitdefender's Scam Radar also defends against phishing via text messages (known as 'smishing') or links sent via messaging apps or phone notifications.
6. Defending your family's privacy
There are various ways your privacy – or the privacy of other family members – could be compromised when online, but Bitdefender has features to defend against online tracking and the worrying possibility of a webcam being hacked.
All Bitdefender Family plans come with some important privacy features, and one of those is Webcam Protection. If any family member has a laptop with a webcam, you'll certainly want to make sure there's no danger of that camera being compromised by malware that could spy on them.
Bitdefender Webcam Protection allows you to set up an allow-list of apps that are cleared for using the webcam (such as Zoom, or Google Meet), and nothing else will get through. Bitdefender will also warn if an unauthorized piece of software tries to access the camera.
In much the same vein, Bitdefender Microphone Monitor is for guarding against the potential scenario where someone is listening in on conversations via the mic. This can be set to notify the user when any app, or the browser, attempts to access the microphone (or just untrusted apps).
Those privacy features are backed up by Bitdefender Anti-Tracker functionality that ensures you're not monitored by the websites you visit, which collect data on you via so-called cookies. Bitdefender's Anti-Tracker comes in the form of an extension for all popular browsers, keeping your family safe from being profiled in this way and better maintaining online privacy.
7. What about online banking and other financial activities – can Bitdefender make them safer?
Yes, Bitdefender's Safepay is an extra layer of defense for Windows PCs that keeps your family even safer when engaged in more sensitive online activities.
Older members of the family in particular may be nervous about paying for goods online, or logging in to their bank account, and unsure about whether doing any of this is at all secure or a sensible idea.
Bitdefender's Safepay provides a reassuring way of making purchases on the web or doing some online banking. It's a fully isolated browser, and it blocks access to the desktop, so that it's not possible for anything to take screenshots of your banking session (even if your system has somehow been compromised). It also uses a virtual keyboard, so keyloggers – that record your keystrokes in an attempt to spy on your input, including the likes of passwords – will be foiled.
Bitdefender Safepay uses a VPN (Virtual Private Network), too, which encrypts the data you're sending online, so you're getting some valuable extra security here. Bitdefender will even automatically prompt to launch Safepay if you, or another family member, visits an online banking site, ensuring everyone's better protected by default.
8. A bundled VPN to reduce online risks when you're out and about
When you, or your loved ones, are away from home and using public Wi-Fi, a VPN is a great piece of additional security, and there's one bundled with Bitdefender's Premium and Ultimate Security Family plans.
Bitdefender VPN protection boosts your levels of online privacy in multiple ways. With a VPN active, your data is encrypted before it leaves the device, effectively travelling down a secure 'tunnel' to a VPN server before that data is sent onwards to its destination online.
This means that your ISP can't snoop on your browsing data (because it's encrypted, and won't make any sense to your internet provider). The same is true if your data is somehow intercepted by a malicious party, and the added bonus is that you're anonymous with a VPN, too (as your device is effectively hidden behind the VPN server).
A VPN is great in general, then, for protecting your privacy and anonymity – whether at home, or on your travels – but it's especially handy if you find yourself needing to use public Wi-Fi. Imagine you're at a coffee shop where there's Wi-Fi provided as well as cappuccinos – this will be an unsecured wireless network, where you could be exposed to so-called Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attacks. This is where a hacker is connected to the same public Wi-Fi network as you, and then positions themselves between your device and the café's wireless router, intercepting your data. If that data is encrypted by a VPN, though, it won't be of any use to them.
You get Bitdefender's full VPN service with the Bitdefender Premium Security and Bitdefender Ultimate Security Family plans, as mentioned, with unlimited traffic and use of all servers. Bitdefender Total Security Family plan comes with a limited version of the VPN service giving you a small allocation for traffic, but that could still be useful in a pinch.