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TL;DR
- Bitdefender's range of family plans offer a strong level of protection for older family members across mobiles and computers, starting with robust anti-phishing tech and real-time protection against malware
- Bitdefender can also defend older people against identity theft, and more sophisticated scams including fraud that might be made much more convincing by AI, and possibly deepfake video or audio
- Bitdefender runs largely in the background in a seamlessly automatic way, avoiding any danger of causing confusion with the overuse of prompts or notifications, and you can manage all your family's devices yourself from a central hub
You may have older members of the family in your household who are less confident with technology, and in that case, you're likely concerned about ensuring their safety when online. If they're not so familiar with the web, and the dangers therein, they could be more likely to come unstuck when faced with some kind of scam – especially as the more sophisticated stings out there these days can fool even savvier individuals.
So, what can you do to help them stay safer online? This is where Bitdefender's range of family subscriptions comes into play. Bitdefender Total Security Family plan, along with the higher-tier Bitdefender Premium and Ultimate Security Family plans, can deliver protection that runs in the background without complications, keeping an older family member safe from the perils that lurk on the internet.
This article will go over some of the questions you may have about exactly how Bitdefender can protect an older person, and indeed, how one of its all-in-one plans can protect the digital lives of your whole family, from your kids to your partner or anyone else living under your roof.
Does Bitdefender provide constant protection for older family members?
Yes, when any of Bitdefender's Family plans are installed on a family member's device – whether they're old, or young – the security suite provides always-on protection.
That means core antivirus protection is always running in the background, along with anti-phishing technology. In short, Bitdefender is always watching whenever a family member is using their device – whether that's a PC (Windows or Mac) or mobile (Android or iOS) – capable of detecting any threat or intrusion.
When an older family member is browsing the web, Bitdefender is constantly on-hand. So, should they fall for a phishing attempt – a link to a fake online store in an email, for example, offering what appears to be a bargain deal, but is in fact a malware-laden trap – the security suite will block the link. Bitdefender not only maintains a list of known phishing sites that it'll automatically block, it also uses AI-powered anti-phishing tech to scan any web page for patterns typical of these scams.
With online threat prevention active and scanning in real-time, Bitdefender will also pick up threats such as a website's security certificate having expired. This keeps not only older people automatically safe from these kinds of dangers by default, but all your family members, without any of them having to think about these things.
Will Bitdefender 'stay out of the way' and not complicate matters, or potentially confuse users with prompts?
Bitdefender has designed all its security suites to work in the background and not intrude on the user's computing experience or otherwise confuse them.
You may have some experience with security tools in the past where these apps have popped up queries or interrupted you, and perhaps this happened more regularly than you'd like. For an older, less tech-savvy person, those kinds of questions or prompts may mean that such a tool would be more confusing than helpful in some respects.
Rest assured that Bitdefender's Family plans are a 'fire-and-forget' solution for your older family member's security. Bitdefender does its job quietly and calmly in the background, defending against threats while not bothering the user in the slightest. While Bitdefender's security suite does keep logs of what it has done in terms of defeating any potential malware or scams, the user doesn't need to ever look at these if they don't want to.
Family members can just ignore Bitdefender and will barely know that it's there – until it steps in to prevent the person from falling victim to a phishing attempt or similar. Meanwhile, if broader decisions do need to be made, you can manage other family member's devices via the Bitdefender Central cloud-based platform (or partner mobile apps), which provides a hub to monitor and maintain all users covered by your Bitdefender subscription plan.
What about more sophisticated scams like AI-powered threats – can Bitdefender stop these?
Bitdefender can deal with more complex threats such as deepfake videos, as well as the more run-of-the-mill types of malware infections or fake phishing websites.
Where you might really worry about an older member of the family is when it comes to a deepfake. This is where an attempt to compromise them is bolstered by the addition of a deepfake video made by AI, or maybe fake audio using a cloned voice that sounds identical to a real relative.
For example, in the recent past Bitdefender has observed a rise in convincing health-related scams for the likes of 'miracle' supplements that use AI-generated video or audio that impersonates famous celebrities, TV presenters or doctors to try and trick the unwary.
Such scams can seem highly plausible to anyone, let alone relative novices to the tech world. Fortunately, Bitdefender has its own dedicated AI-powered scam detection assistant called Scamio Pro. This is specifically designed to help users identify scams and sophisticated social engineering attempts, including those enhanced by AI-generated content and deepfake-style deception.
Scamio Pro is a feature incorporated with the Bitdefender Scam Protection Pro service, and this AI assistant can answer questions about whether something might be a scam – in plain English – and recognize typical attempts at fraud.
With Scamio Pro as an easy-to-chat-with advisor, anyone can be more confident about whether video or audio has been faked as part of a scam. This AI chatbot is provided with Bitdefender Premium Security and Bitdefender Ultimate Security Family plans.
How about ID theft – can Bitdefender protect older family members from having their identity stolen?
Bitdefender has a Digital Identity Protection module that represents a comprehensive set of defensive measures against the specter of identity theft.
The Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection service is provided with the Bitdefender Ultimate Security Family plan, allowing not only for protecting your own identity, but also up to four other family members. (Or more if you purchase a second subscription plan).
This feature allows you to keep a close eye on an older person's digital footprint – their whole online life – or any of your family members for that matter. You can see what personal information about them may be exposed, and Bitdefender monitors the dark web – and elsewhere online – for any leaked details pertaining to your family.
If a data breach happens which involves a family member's account, Bitdefender will warn you, and also offer advice as to what action you'll want to take next (changing their password for starters).
It's just as crucial to defend the identity of family members as it is to keep their devices safe. And with a Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection score available – a mark out of 100 – to gauge how secure the respective identities of your family are, you can follow Bitdefender's tips to increase that score and make life much more difficult for any criminals who may try to prey on them.