Protecting personal data on the Internet

This section provides information about how to make your Internet browsing safe and protect your data against theft.

In this section

About protection of personal data on the Internet

About On-Screen Keyboard

How to open On-Screen Keyboard

Checking a website for safety

How to change encrypted connections settings

How to access files stored in a secret vault

Page top
[Topic 70892]

About protection of personal data on the Internet

Kaspersky Free helps you to protect your personal data against theft:

  • Passwords, user names, and other registration data
  • Account numbers and bank card numbers

Kaspersky Free includes components and tools that allow you to protect your personal data against theft by criminals who use methods such as

and interception of data entered on the keyboard.

Protection against phishing is provided by Anti-Phishing, which is implemented in the Safe Browsing component. Enable these components to ensure comprehensive protection against phishing.

Protection against interception of data entered on the keyboard is provided by On-Screen Keyboard.

Page top

[Topic 82527]

About On-Screen Keyboard

When using the Internet, you frequently need to enter your personal data or your user name and password. This happens, for example, during account registration on websites, online shopping, and Internet banking.

There is a risk that personal data can be intercepted by hardware keyboard interceptors or keyloggers, which are programs that record keystrokes. The On-Screen Keyboard tool prevents the interception of data entered via the keyboard.

Many programs classified as spyware can take screenshots, which then are automatically transmitted to an intruder for further analysis to steal the user's personal data. On-Screen Keyboard protects entered personal data from attempts to intercept it by means of screenshots.

On-Screen Keyboard has the following features:

  • You can click the On-Screen Keyboard buttons with the mouse.
  • Unlike hardware keyboards, it is impossible to press several keys simultaneously on On-Screen Keyboard. This is why key combinations (such as ALT+F4) require that you click the first key (for example, ALT), then the second key (for example, F4), and then the first key again. The second click of the key acts in the same way as releasing the key on a hardware keyboard.
  • The On-Screen Keyboard language can be switched by using the same shortcut that is specified by the operating system settings for the hardware keyboard. To do so, right-click the other key (for example, if the LEFT ALT+SHIFT shortcut is configured in the operating system settings for switching the keyboard language, left-click the LEFT ALT key and then right-click the SHIFT key).

The use of On-Screen Keyboard has the following limitations:

  • On-Screen Keyboard prevents interception of personal data only when used with the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome browsers. When used with other browsers, On-Screen Keyboard does not protect entered personal data against interception.
  • On-Screen Keyboard cannot protect your personal data if the website requiring the entry of such data is hacked, because in this case the information is obtained directly by the intruders from the website.
  • On-Screen Keyboard does not prevent screenshots that are made by using the Print Screen key and other combinations of keys specified in the operating system settings.
  • Kaspersky Free does not provide protection against unauthorized screenshots in Microsoft Windows 8 and 8.1 (64-bit only) if the On-Screen Keyboard window is open but the Protected Browser process is not started.
Page top
[Topic 70895]

How to open On-Screen Keyboard

You can open On-Screen Keyboard in the following ways:

  • From the toolbar of Chromium-based Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome
  • By pressing a combination of keyboard keys

Starting On-Screen Keyboard from the browser toolbar

To open On-Screen Keyboard from the toolbar of such browsers as Microsoft Edge based on Chromium, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome:

  1. Click the  Kaspersky Protection button on the browser toolbar.
  2. Select the On-Screen Keyboard item in the menu that opens.

Starting On-Screen Keyboard by using the hardware keyboard

To open the On-Screen Keyboard by using the hardware keyboard:

Press the shortcut CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+P.

This shortcut does not display On-Screen Keyboard if the shortcut is already in use by a different application, such as Microsoft Word.

Page top
[Topic 82518]

Checking a website for safety

Kaspersky Free allows checking the safety of a website before you click a link to open it. Websites are checked using URL Advisor.

The URL Advisor component checks links on a web page opened in Chromium-based Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, or Mozilla Firefox. Kaspersky Free displays one of the following icons next to the checked link:

Safe web page – if the linked web page is safe according to Kaspersky

Unknown web page – if there is no information about the safety status of the linked web page

Web page that can be used by intruders – if according to Kaspersky, hackers can cause harm to your computer or your data by using the web page that the link leads to;

Compromised web page – if according to Kaspersky, the web page that the link leads to can be infected or hacked;

Dangerous web page – if the linked web page is dangerous according to Kaspersky

To view a pop-up window with more details on the link, move the mouse pointer to the corresponding icon.

By default, Kaspersky Free checks links in search results only.

Page top
[Topic 70888]

How to change encrypted connections settings

Encrypted connections are established over the SSL and TLS protocols. By default, Kaspersky Free scans such connections upon request from URL Advisor.

To change encrypted connections settings:

  1. Open the main application window.
  2. Click Settings button in the lower part of the main window.

    This opens the Settings window.

  3. Go to the Security settings section.
  4. In the Advanced settings block, click the Network settings button.
  5. In the Network settings window, go to the Encrypted connections scan section.
  6. Select an action to perform when connecting to websites over an encrypted connection:
    • Do not scan encrypted connections. Kaspersky Free does not scan encrypted connections.
    • Scan encrypted connections upon request from protection components. Kaspersky Free only scans encrypted connections upon request from URL Advisor. This action is selected by default.
    • Always scan encrypted connections. Kaspersky Free always scans encrypted connections.

    Clicking the Show certificates link opens a window with a list of trusted certificates that are used by popular websites. Certificates are added to this list if you click Add to trusted certificates and continue in a Kaspersky Free warning when visiting a website. After you add a certificate to the list, the website is considered trusted. You can add or remove certificates in the Trusted root certificates window using the Add and Delete buttons.

    If you have multiple user accounts on your computer, and one of the users accepts the new certificate, this certificate is also added to the trusted certificate list for all other users.

  1. Select an action to perform if there are errors when scanning encrypted connections:
    • Ignore. If this action is selected, Kaspersky Free terminates the connection with the website on which the scan error occurred.
    • Ask. If there is an error when scanning encrypted connection with a website, Kaspersky Free shows a notification where you can select an action:
      • Ignore. Kaspersky Free terminates the connection with the website on which the scan error occurred.
      • Add domain to exclusions. Kaspersky Free adds the website address to the list of trusted addresses. Kaspersky Free does not scan encrypted connections on websites from the list of trusted addresses. You can view such websites by clicking the Trusted addresses link.

      This option is selected by default.

    • Add domain to exclusions. Kaspersky Free adds the website to the list of trusted addresses. Kaspersky Free does not scan encrypted connections on websites from the list of trusted addresses. These websites are displayed in the Trusted addresses window, which can be opened by clicking the Trusted addresses link.
  2. Click the Trusted addresses link to open the Trusted addresses window and perform the following actions:
    1. Click the Add button to add the website to the list of exclusions for encrypted connections scan.
    2. Enter the domain name of the website in the Domain name field.

      Click the Add button. The application will not scan encrypted connections with this website. Please note that adding a website to the list of exclusions may limit the functionality of scanning the website by URL Advisor.

Page top
[Topic 157530]

How to access files stored in a secret vault

To access files stored in a secret vault:

  1. Open the main application window.
  2. Click Settings button in the lower part of the main window.

    This opens the Settings window.

  3. Under Privacy settings, select Secret Vault.
  4. In the Secret Vault block, click the I already have a secret vault button.

    This opens the Secret Vault window.

  5. Click Unlock next to your secret vault.
  6. Enter the password and click the Open in Windows Explorer button.

Files stored in the secret vault appear in the Explorer window.

Page top

[Topic 84612]