Microsoft Enhances OneDrive With a Personal Vault
OneDrive is Microsoft cloud storage service allowing you to upload all files and photos and access them from any device. It can be used as a standalone product or as part of an Office 365 subscription. Access is by way of secure login, but Microsoft is introducing a new protected area within your OneDrive called Personal Vault.
Accessing the files within Personal Vault will require a “strong authentication method or a second step of identity verification,” which takes the form of a fingerprint, face, PIN, or code sent to your email address or phone via SMS. There is also the Microsoft Authenticator app to use if you so wish.
Microsoft sees Personal Vault as a way to protect your most sensitive files and will use an automatic locking system to ensure after a short period of inactivity your Personal Vault locks itself, requiring re-authentication to access again. For mobile devices, it is possible to have scanned documents, new photos, and captured video stored directly in your Personal Vault as you capture them. That way, the files are never accessible from your device’s storage and therefore remain secure.
Windows 10 will also sync your OneDrive and the Personal Vault area is protected in a BitLocker-encrypted area. Personal Vault isn’t available to use just yet. Microsoft intends to roll it out later this year with Australia, New Zealand, and Canada getting it first. By the end of 2019 all OneDrive users will have access to it automatically, as will anyone new signing up for the service. Microsoft has also decided to improve the storage options and space available to OneDrive subscribers.
The standalone OneDrive subscription offers 50GB of storage for $1.99 per month, but this is doubling to 100GB while the price remains the same. Existing subscribers will automatically get the extra 50GB when the increase arrives, which Microsoft says is happening soon. Office 365 subscribers get 1TB of storage, but Microsoft is responding to a demand for more by allowing the limit to be increased in increments of 200GB for $1.99 up to a maximum of 2TB – for 2TB of storage you’ll be paying $9.99 extra per month.
Adapted from an article on pcmag.com
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