FreeAgent Update - Release Margaux

Here's what we've improved in this week's update - 'Margaux':

Sensitive Data Encryption

We already take great pains to maintain the security of your data:

• All data that is passed between your web browser and our FreeAgent servers is encrypted using the same technology as the online banks use. This prevents anybody 'snooping' on the network traffic and seeing your data.
• We encrypt our backup files, which we create nightly, before they're moved to a secure storage area. Obviously our servers themselves are secured (both the physical machines, by our hosting partner Rackspace, and the software).
• We don't keep the payment card details supplied when you subscribe, except for the expiry date and last four digits.

This week we introduced a further level of protection by encrypting key, sensitive fields within the database itself. These include your company name and bank account names, sort codes and account numbers.

This significantly reduces the possibility of 'identity theft' being possible even in the unlikely event of a hacker being able to access our database files directly.

We welcome your feedback on this, especially your thoughts on what else we need to attend to to maintain the highest levels of privacy and security for your data.

Meanwhile, in other news....

New Categories

We've added 'Computer Software', 'Web Hosting' and 'Staff Training' to the list of categories which are available for expenses and bank transaction explanations.

Support for NatWest Credit Card Statements

We've added support for NatWest Credit Card statements, which are in the OFX format but for security reasons don't include quite enough account number information for us to find the right account. We now only attempt to match the last four digits of the card number you specify (which is only the last eight anyway) so that these statements are now recognized.