A deep dive into OneDrive Personal Vault

Microsoft 365 Life Hacks > > A deep dive into OneDrive Personal Vault

July 03, 2023

OneDrive has been around for the past ten years with Microsoft 365, changing the way we access what matters to us. From vacation photos to business presentations, OneDrive has enabled us to upload and back up our files to the cloud, allowing us to get to them anywhere. If you need an extra layer of protection for your files, then OneDrive Personal Vault is your solution for storing documents with sensitive financial or personal information. Learn what it’s all about and how it uses advanced authentication technology to safeguard your files and personal data.

A deep dive into OneDrive Personal Vault – Microsoft 365 (1)

What is OneDrive Personal Vault?

Think of your Personal Vault as OneDrive’s inner sanctum. While OneDrive already uses the latest security measures on the Microsoft Cloud for each of your files, Personal Vault adds more security layers to log in and access important data.

A deep dive into OneDrive Personal Vault – Microsoft 365 (2)

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Safeguard your photos and files in OneDrive

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Personal Vault uses the latest two-factor authentication for you to gain access. After you log into OneDrive, you’ll need a second step of identity verification to get into Personal Vault. This can be set up with your fingerprint, facial recognition, a unique PIN, or a code sent to you via email or your mobile device. Even if someone gets into your OneDrive account, they won’t have your additional biometrics data to log in to your Personal Vault.

You can also use Microsoft Authenticator to unlock your Personal Vault. This is another app that relies on biometrics and PINs for verifying your identity.

What’s more, if you forget to exit or sign out of your Personal Vault, don’t worry—it will automatically lock you out after some time of inactivity.

“If you ever need to show your identity at government offices—applying for a passport or insurance, for example—or you need to show a second form of identification, you can simply pull it up from your Personal Vault and be well on your way!”

Scan and add photographs directly to Personal Vault

Personal Vault and its high-tech security features are handy for storing the most sensitive documents, such as Social Security information, driver’s licenses, travel forms, and birth certificates. If you ever need to show your identity for an online application, you can simply pull your ID up from your Personal Vault and be well on your way!

Features and protection that Personal Vault adds to OneDrive

The additional features of Personal Vault make it one of the most secure storage platforms out there. These features include:

File encryption: From uploading to the cloud to safe storage once it’s uploaded, your files are encrypted as they’re moving to your account and when they’re downloaded again. Learn more about encryption and how it protects against cyber threats.
Suspicious activity monitoring: If there’s a login detected in Personal Vault that’s far removed from your IP address or mobile device, OneDrive will alert you and ask you to verify if it’s really you and if you approve of the login.
Protection against ransomware: Ransomware is a growing threat that holds your files hostage until you pay a hacker to recover them. It’s affected major corporations, institutions, and individuals alike. Personal Vault keeps an eye out for any attempts to break into your files and has built-in tools to recover them quickly and safely.
Virus scanning: Using the same technology that underpins Microsoft Defender, both OneDrive and Personal Vault will scan all of your files for viruses, malware, and known threats.

How to get started with OneDrive

Sign up for a OneDrive account and you can start with 5GB of free online cloud storage. Personal Vault will be included with both free and Basic plans (starting at $19.99/year) with limits to the number of files you can add. Microsoft 365 subscribers can get up to 6TB of storage for the entire family and can place as many files into their Personal Vault, up to their OneDrive size limit.

Of course, even a Personal account with 1TB of storage—or 200 times more than what you get with a free plan—can back up your entire hard drive, and securely store the things that matter to you most. Compare plans today and see how much storage you need when you get started with OneDrive.