Stay on top of your online security with our Protection Score

How protected am I online? 

Customers often ask us some version of this question. It’s a good question and in the past, there was no direct answer – only recommendations. For instance, we recommend online protection that goes beyond antivirus to include identity and privacy protection, as well as promoting safety best practices like using multi-factor authentication. We wondered if there was a simpler and easier way to advise customers how to better protect themselves. 

A recent survey shows how important online security has become to consumers. We found that 74% of you have concerns about keeping your information private online.  57% want to be more in control of their personal info online. And, since the pandemic started, 47% of online consumers feel unsafe compared to 29%. Simply put, customers are more conscious of their safety online than ever before, and eager to play an active role in their protection. 

It’s time for a new approach – meet the Protection Score. 

What is Protection Score? 

If you’re thinking this looks like a credit, fitness, sleep, or any of the other scores we now use to visualize and quantify aspects of our life, you’re on the right track. 

Your personalized Protection Score is a measure of your security online. The higher your score, the safer you are online. Your score will highlight any weaknesses in your security and help you fix them with easy step-by-step instructions. We’ll also let you know which features haven’t been setup so you can get the most out of your protection. 

Protection Score is the simple way to understand and act on your online security 

When we developed Protection Score the idea was to give customers a simple solution to better protect themselves and get the most from their subscription, including security tips to protect their identity, privacy, and devices, while also improving their online habits. We wanted it to be easy for anyone to: 

• Protect any weak spots – Personalized feedback helps you improve your security and address any data breaches. 
• See how safe you are online – Measure the strength of your online protection with a real-time evaluation. 
• Make protection easy – Simple instructions make it easy to setup your protection so you can get the most out of your subscription. 
• Get the most out of your subscription – Make sure you’re fully utilizing your McAfee security—we’ll let you know which features haven’t been setup. 

How do I improve my Protection Score? 

Now that we’ve talked about Protection Score generally, let’s look at how it works in practice. Your score is based on a few things, including setting up your McAfee protection, strengthening your security with our safety recommendations, and ensuring your personal info is safely monitored with Identity Protection.  

For example, if your information is exposed in a data breach your score may drop, but you can improve it by following our easy-to-follow remediation steps. Once you’ve completed those steps your score will go back up and you can be confident knowing you’re better protected online. 

A perfect score does not mean you’re perfectly safe, but it does mean that you’re doing an excellent job of preventing and managing risks. 

Why should I care about Protection Score? 

Your Protection Score is a great way to understand how safe you are at a glance. Additionally, improving your score ensures your life online is being protected by many of the safety features and benefits McAfee has to offer. For instance, the subscriber, John Smith, can see they’re fairly safe based on their score. However, it isn’t a perfect score and there are a few actions they could still take to improve it. In this case, adding their email and phone number to dark web monitoring – a crucial step in protecting their personally identifiable information online. 

Where can I find my Protection Score? 

Protection Score can be easily accessed* from your browser of choice on any device so you can review our guidance and take steps to improve your score from wherever you are. McAfee’s Protection Score is a first for the cybersecurity industry, but we’re not stopping there. We’re going to continue to improve the feature by adding more personalization and accessibility so you can enjoy your life online knowing exactly how protected you are.  

*Note that Protection Score is currently live in the US, Canada, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, UK, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy.