I store all my login information in an Excel file: the URL, ID, and the password with a comment in case I forget the purpose of website. Though I do not save my card information anywhere, some people do. The company says that saving sensitive data on computer is not a good idea, as any hacker can get access to your files if the computer is not protected properly. This means all your important information is used by someone else for his or her benefits.
The SurfSecret KeyPad claims that it can protect not only your IDs and passwords, but also your credit card and other personal information from being stolen. That is, if you store the information in the SurfSecret KeyPad instead of an Excel or any other file. It also claims that the ID and password are encrypted using some technology (name of the technology is not mentioned on the webpage). This makes it almost impossible for hackers to lay their hands on your data.
The features include automatic login to the website that you include in the SurfSecret KeyPad. You need not type in the URL of the website in the Internet browser. You just open the SurfSecret KeyPad and select the website. The company claims that the KeyPad also has the capability of recognizing the phishing sites when you log in using the SurfSecret KeyPad. It alerts you regarding the corrupt site and prevents your ID and password from being entered into the malicious website’s database.
Looking at the features on offer, I too am considering buying a copy of SurfSecret KeyPad so that I do not have to open my Excel file every time to check out the IDs or passwords to access sites that I do not visit frequently. If the company claims are true, then this is one of the best software to protect your privacy while offering you ease of logging in and ease of transactions, as you don’t have to enter the card information manually. If the data is in the SurfSecret KeyPad, it will enter the data for you.
Installation was not a problem, though at a point it stopped and asked me to close all the open browsers. I had to close each Internet Explorer window before it proceeded with the installation. However, the installation required just three clicks: for EULA, destination folder, and for clicking on the Retry button once you close all the open browsers.
I faced some problems with the download of SurfSecret KeyPad. As with the SurfSecret’s Privacy Protector, I could not use any download manager. I had to turn off the download manager and use the Internet Explorer’s default download process to get the software to my local HDD. This took around 8 minutes on a broadband connection of 256 Kbps. At this rate, we can expect that it will take approximately 20 minutes to download the software during normal traffic on a Dial-Up connection. Another point worth noting here is that if at all you are able to use any download manager, there is no resume support. This means that in case of any problem, you will have to restart the entire download process.
In the coming sections, let us check out if the program indeed meets the claims by the company.