Securing your data

PreVeil has three unique features to help your secure your account and prevent the loss of your data. We highly recommend you utilize one or more of these methods to protect yourself from losing access to your PreVeil account.

You must always have access to your PreVeil encryption key

While you do not need to know anything about PreVeil’s advanced key management techniques to use your PreVeil account, there is one special key you should know about, and that key is your PreVeil encryption key. It’s a long 88-digit number that is automatically generated when you create your PreVeil account for the first time. You don’t need to remember it because your key is automatically stored on the personal devices (computers or mobile devices) you use to access PreVeil. Your encryption key is used to enable access to your account and decrypt your information. You can think of it as your personal digital fingerprint.  Here are some easy steps that ensure you never lose your key.

Create a Recovery Code File

A Recovery Code File is a PDF file that contains your encryption key. The Recovery Code File will allow you to restore your key on either a computer or mobile device. We recommend storing the Recovery Code File in a safe location that is not on the device on which you access your PreVeil account.

Install PreVeil on multiple devices

When you install PreVeil on multiple devices, a copy of your encryption key is securely copied to each new device. If you lose a device, you can simply copy your encryption key from one of your other devices to the replacement device and regain access to your information. PreVeil uses a special cryptographic technique called Diffie–Hellman key exchange to copy your key. This technique is designed to not reveal your key to PreVeil or anyone else during or after the copy process. Learn how to add a device here.

Set up a Recovery Group

What if you were to lose ALL the devices you installed PreVeil on? You can still regain access to your account if you set up a Recovery Group. The members of your Recovery Group are chosen by you and made up of a few PreVeil users you trust. If you lose all your devices, you initiate a key recovery process. After you are authenticated, you will be asked to contact members of your recovery group. Once a subset of them approves the recovery, you can regain access to your encryption key. For example, you can designate 6 approvers and require that at least 3 of them must approve before your key can be recovered. The approval group process uses a cryptographic technique called Shamir's Secret Sharing. This technique shares pieces of your secret encryption key among your approval group. None of your approvers can access your encryption key by themselves, but you can do so after the required number of Recovery Group members approve the recovery. Shamir's Secret Sharing technique is designed to prevent PreVeil or anyone who breaches its servers from recovering your key.

Don’t copy your PreVeil key to a Public Computer

A final word on safeguarding your information: since your Private Key is your unique digital fingerprint, never copy it to a public computer; otherwise, any user of that computer will be able to access the information in your PreVeil account.