It was 2014 and Hari Ravichandran, a serial entrepreneur whose latest company had a valuation in the billions, was applying for a mortgage. He would have no problem getting approval, right? Wrong. Unbeknownst to Ravichandran, someone had stolen his identity and opened a slew of fraudulent accounts in his name. His credit score had plummeted, and his mortgage application was denied outright. Still, as a tech-savvy person with great credit previously, he anticipated a quick fix. Not so fast—literally. Two weeks later, after enlisting numerous services to help with various aspects of the problem, he was only more frustrated. The products that were supposed to protect him from cybercrime were fragmented, difficult to use and expensive. But, most importantly, no one product could provide all the solutions that are needed to curb online crime, or stop it all together. So, Ravichandran built one himself: Aura.
In 2017, he acquired the one digital security service that had impressed him—the expert assigned to walk him through his options was calm and collected. It was the initial piece of what would become Aura, the all-in-one, proactive online safety solution designed to help keep you and your family safe from identity theft, financial fraud and other online threats.
The service is available directly to consumers and also offered as a sponsored perk for wealth clients by their investment managers. Blue-chip companies like Chubb insurance and market leaders like MetLife also offer it to clients.
Money management—and what clients need from wealth managers—has changed. Today, 77% of high-net-worth individuals are more worried about their financial accounts being hacked than about their investments decreasing in value. They have good reasons. Last year, $12.5 billion was lost to cybercriminals, and that number is quickly rising. Affluent individuals are 43% more likely than others to be targeted, partly because they have more digital “points of entry”—i.e. online financial accounts, titles to homes, and even devices. As such, wealth preservation is now as important as portfolio growth, says Chris Hamilton, Aura’s Practice Leader, Financial Institutions. “The average wealth manager knows that it’s not good enough to return double digit investment growth for their client, if they are ignoring the myriad of threats from Digital Identity issues. That growth can quickly be eradicated by a digital crime event. They now must also be managing the risk for that.”
What risks, exactly, does Aura help protect clients from and how? The tools are numerous and can be personalized to each client’s needs but they include: suspicious financial transaction monitoring, data broker opt out, antivirus protection from malware, global VPN “safe-browsing” with military-grade encryption (which allows for risk-free use of public wi-fi), junk mail removal, constant identity monitoring across dark web and other channels, and 3 bureau credit monitoring. Additionally, Aura’s unique Family Sharing capabilities allow for more protection for elder family members and children—both of whom are more vulnerable to online threats.
The features add up to more than the sum of their parts. The sheer number of data points Aura monitors—as well as its AI and machine learning capabilities—allow it to send alerts up to 250 times faster than similar tools. As a result, the service is able to prevent problems from occurring at all. “The model for a lot of the incumbents is almost like a fire alarm,” Ravichandran has said. “They wait until the fire goes off [to] send you an alert. It’s great that you know that your house is on fire, but you still have a problem because your house is on fire…The way we thought about it is to prevent the fire.” Further adding to Aura’s effectiveness is the service’s thoughtful design, which prioritizes ease of use. When research showed that individuals who were informed of data breaches often still didn’t change their passwords, for example, Aura automated the process. The app now suggests strong new passwords and saves them with the tap of a single button.
Of course, no solution is foolproof. But when problems do occur, Aura provides strong defense. Each Aura membership comes with $1 million in identity theft insurance, and up to $5 million is included in family plans. These funds can be used to cover wage losses, legal fees, and accounting bills. Live customer support is also available around the clock, 365 days a year. Calls are answered promptly by U.S.-based agents and a “white glove” fraud remediation team is immediately on the case. First comes triage. Accounts are re-secured via new passwords, credit files that have been compromised are locked or “frozen,” fraudulent charges are disputed—often in three-way calls with Aura agents on the line—and fake accounts are closed. Next, a step-by-step plan for identity restoration and credit rebuilding is created. Ongoing monitoring by the team is also included.
Aura is attracting customers with increasing urgency. The National Public Data breach that occurred earlier this year and resulted in the social security numbers of—at least possibly—every American being compromised led to an especially dramatic uptick. Clearly, Ravichandran has created the solution now that he wished he had way-back-when. Hamilton, who is a client as well as Aura executive, says Aura’s utility even goes beyond helping in an active crisis. “Legacy solutions used to be so fragmented and fractured—a little bit of VPN here, a little bit of antivirus there…And they didn’t protect me. With Aura I have an all-in-one solution that, when it shows me a critical alert, I can often solve right at my fingertips. I genuinely am safer and smarter than I was before I had it. It’s given me peace of mind.”
October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month.
For more information on how Aura can protect you and/or your clients, visit aura.com/partnerships.
