FAQ

Malware is an umbrella term for a wide range of different programs and entities that can carry out a number of unwanted modifications to your connected devices. Malware can be as seemingly innocent as unwanted pop-ups, but in the worst cases can cause your online accounts to becompromised, or even cause physical damage to your devices.

Trojans are a type of Malware that stow away inside often legitimate downloads and become active when they’re downloaded to your system. Once active, a Trojan can be any form of Malware and can both damage your device and compromise online accounts.

Adware is advertising-supported malware, which harasses users with constant advertisements often in places advertisements are not expected. For example: advertisements embedded in text, or banners on web pages where there usually are none. Adware by itself is not harmful and is just an annoyance, however, the presence of Adware is often a sign a device has been compromised in other ways. Even by itself, a large amount of Adware can significantly impact a device’s performance/speed.

Ransomware is the most common category of malware because of its ability to and reputation for bringing companies and organizations to a halt in an instant. When Ransomware becomes active on a device, it can infect the underlying operating system and leave users unable to interact with their device. Usually, on devices with Ransomware, the infections will be presented on the device’s screen with a page stating the device has been locked down and cannot be unlocked and restored until the owner pays a ransom price to the individual who created and deployed the Ransomware. Ransomware is becoming increasingly complex and common.

When you are on either a public or private Wi-Fi network, anyone on that network can look into your device if they have the right software. If you trust everyone on that network, you are in good shape. If you do not trust everyone on that network it is very important that you protect yourself with a VPN, thus making your connection to that network private and secured.

A profile within SaferNet is an individual’s user profile which can be customized to their own specific internet control settings. Profiles are unlimited in that you can create as many as you want to fit the needs of your organization or family.

A network is a group of computers or devices linked together behind a firewall, and those devices can typically communicate with each other on that network.

A firewall is a device that is placed where the internet comes into a network that blocks all traffic into the network unless a user has the correct password to access that network.

SaferNet’s VPN is unlike most VPN’s as it turns on when you turn on your device and stays on 24 hours a day. Other VPN’s are “on demand” and turn on only when someone turns them on. This is good for employers or individuals that feel it is important to always be protected. If a person forgets to turn on their VPN, even for just a minute, on public WiFi, their safety could be compromised.

With an internet filter an administrator can block entire areas (or content categories) on the internet from accessing a network or a device, such as pornography or social media.

All VPN’s are not alike, and you cannot run 2 VPN’s at the same time. SaferNet is a 256-bit encrypted VPN which means that SaferNet encrypts our customer’s traffic at the highest encryption level. This is the same level of encryption that the military and banks use to encrypt their traffic.

Most people do not know when they are being hacked. It is likely that all users of the internet have been hacked at some point. Most people also do not know what has been taken from their devices. The question is how bad the hack was and how do I know if I have been hacked? With SaferNet’s Entourage feature you will be able to see all attempted hacks on your device and when it was blocked. On some devices, we have seen as many as 20 attempts in an hour. On others we see attempts only a few times a day, but rarely do we see 0 attempts on a device.

SaferNet VPN ensures your traffic is encrypted, and so any entity looking in from the outside would see unreadable information. Because your private data is fed to the internet in this encrypted state, it remains secure and private.

Entourage is the list of activity we show you from other websites that ping your device when you navigate to a certain website or use an app. This may include web advertising and other “tag-along” websites that typically represent unsolicited and unwanted content. Some Entourage is considered necessary or required to correctly present a web page or for an app to function as intended. SaferNet filters the wanted and unwanted Entourage and we give our users a complete view of what is being allowed in their network and what is blocked.

SaferNet is an ideal cyber security and network monitoring solution for business. With SaferNet, businesses are protected from malware and other unwanted entities online. SafeNet’s internet controls and monitoring capabilities mean that business owners can keep an eye on network activity for all employees and restrict access to certain websites, or categories of websites, if desired. For example, a business owner could block all social media on the business’ devices; or even block specific sports websites during “March Madness”.

With SaferNet everyone gets 14 days free to try out the service without charge. The way it works is you will enter your credit card upon purchase. Your credit card will not be billed until after the 14-day trial ends. If you choose to cancel before the trial is over, you must simply go to the hamburger menu on the dashboard and click on “Billing Information” to cancel. No need to call customer service and talk to anyone; your subscription is in your own control.

SaferNet is available on almost every device – Windows, Mac OS, Android, Apple iOS (phones and tablets), Kindle Fire, and is available in beta on Chromebook.

Setting up SaferNet only takes a few minutes. After setting up an account online through our website, we have a user-friendly tutorial that will walk you through creating profiles for all users on your account. Assigning profiles is simply naming them (Each user that you want protected) as well as setting security/filter levels. After setting up profiles, you download the SaferNet app onto each device that you will be adding to your service. Sign into the SaferNet app with your SaferNet credentials and assign that device to the appropriate profile on your account. Once you complete this step for each device, your account setup is complete.

SaferNet is encrypted with AES-256, meaning a brute force attack would need to try 2255 keys. Measured in time, this would take 2,117.8 trillion years to brute force on average. There are more sophisticated methods however, and at SaferNet our cyber security backend is in a near constant state of configuration to ensure our users are fully protected from the threats of today, and of tomorrow.

SaferNet works by running your connection to the web through a Virtual Private Network. Our VPN was built with cyber security in mind and is encrypted using Open VPN and an AES-256 cipher; meaning attacks against your network are stopped. Not only this, but the data you transmit is obfuscated from prying eyes –including hackers, governments, or your own Internet Service Provider. By giving you visualization of your network activity on our dashboard, the only person able to see your activity is you.

When active, the device you are using will inform you a VPN is running. While browsing the web, you’ll be able to check your own activity log on the SaferNet dashboard to confirm the software is active.

To install SaferNet you first need to create an account on the SaferNet website. Once the account is created you will download SaferNet to each device you want to protect, and then log into the app on that device and connect it to the appropriate profile on your account. You can access SaferNet’s download page for all devices on our website under “Resources”, or you can find us on the App store on your mobile device.

Having automatic updates turned “on” in the settings on your device will ensure that SaferNet will always download the latest versions on mobile. Our desktop clients must be downloaded and updated from our website.

Windows: 7, 10
MacOS: Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur
Android: 4.1 or later
iOS: iOS 9 or later

If you get a new device, simply log out of SaferNet on your old device, then download SaferNet on the new device and login to SaferNet using your credentials and connect to the appropriate profile for that device. If you have lost/broken the device and you are not able to log out of SaferNet on that device,you must login to your account/dashboard online, and go to that user’s profile and disconnect then delete the old device from that user’s “Monitor” tab on their profile.

If the user is an administrator, they can use the pause feature on the SaferNet app. This will pause the VPN for a few minutes and allow navigation to the site. If it is a website that you use often,you can permanently add that website to the “allowed websites” on the ‘Control’ tab on that user’s specific profile.

SaferNet has a “forgot password” option on the Login page on the website.

This is dependent on your device. Smart phones and tablets will have SaferNet present alongside other installed apps. Both Windows and Mac will auto-launch SaferNet after installation but otherwise can be found along with your other installed programs.

Alerts from SaferNet show up as notifications on mobile devices, while on desktop they can be seen by clicking on the Bell notification icon on the user dashboard when you are logged in to your account/dashboard through a web browser.

We suggest logging into your account through a web browser and adding profiles to your account for additional users. You can also add devices to your plan from the main menu of your account here as well.

SaferNet can be administered remotely from the SaferNet app installed on a device that is signed in as an administrator on mobile devices, or by logging in to the dashboard/account through a web browser on a desktop/laptop computer.

In the interest of our user’s privacy, SaferNet only records a limited amount of activity. This is based on number of entries rather than time. On average, for an individual who spends a regular amount of time online, a SaferNet profile will show approximately 1 to 2 weeks of history – after this, the data is deleted. SaferNet does not store or sell your information!

SaferNet uses a very limited amount of disk space – 30mb on Mac OS, 12mb on Windows, 11mb on iOS, and 30mb on Android.

SaferNet works on WiFi or cellular networks, anywhere around the world.

The CyberSafety Assistant is a tool for administrators that tracks activity across all user profiles on a SaferNet account. Data is displayed in a way that is understandable and informative and will give the administrator deep insight into how SaferNet is protecting all devices on the account, and how safe the activity has been for all users. It is currently in Beta.

SaferNet does not store any information long-term, and SaferNet does not sell any of your personal information – ever!

SaferNet is easy to uninstall if you do not wish to continue with the service.