Pro 1 adds LifeLock to security solution

ROMEOVILLE, Ill.—Protection 1, one of the nation's largest home security companies, announced in July that it has partnered with LifeLock, an identity theft protection provider, to help Protection 1's customers protect their identities as well as their homes.

Protection 1, which serves more than 1 million customers and is based here, is packaging the LifeLock service as part of its HomeCore security solution for new customers. The service will cover one adult, but customers can add additional family members at a discounted rate, said Protection 1 chief marketing & customer experience officer Jamie Haenggi.

Existing HomeCore customers can purchase the LifeLock service as an add-on, she said.

Why is a company that specializes in physical security adding a cyber-security feature to its offering?

“It stems from the fact that at Protection 1, we understand the digital age that we live in,” Haenggi told Security Systems News. “While I think people are concerned about stolen laptops, they're actually more concerned about the information they have on those laptops as it relates to their identity. So that really kind of took us into the cyber-space of identify theft. We saw it as a really good fit.”

Identity theft is a major problem in the U.S., according to 2009 FBI and Javelin Strategy & Research statistics provided by Protection 1. Those stats show that an adult in the United States is eight times more likely to have their identity stolen than their home burglarized. There are an estimated 11.1 million victims of identity theft and an estimated 1.4 million home burglaries.

Protection 1 said that the addition of LifeLock services “falls in line with the company's philosophy to provide customers with a full suite of life-protection services that go beyond the home.”

Haenggi said the LifeLock service is not tied into the customer's alarm panel.

“It's a completely separate service that LifeLock provides so … they can monitor if your identify or credit cards are being used in any way,” Haenggi said.

If a customer's identity should be stolen, LifeLock “has a whole team of investigators who go to work on your behalf to resolve the issue,” she said. That company also takes on the time-consuming task of notifying authorities and credit card companies of the theft, she said.

Haenggi said the identity-theft feature should “make for a stickier customer” because it “enables us to own more of the mindshare around security with that customer.”

Also, she said, “it's an RMR driver and it doesn't have hardware attached to it. It's not something that requires us to roll a truck.”

RMR is generated from customers adding on additional family members for identify theft protection and by existing customers choosing the feature as an add-on, Haenggi said.

In 2009, Security Networks, a nationwide commercial and residential provider of security monitoring and related services, announced it had teamed up with identity protection services provider InfoArmor to offer what it said was the first complete physical and identity security solution bundle.

Haenggi, who said Protection 1 also is offering the LifeLock service as part of a benefit package to its employees, who number more than 2,500 around the country, believes Protection 1's identify theft protection offering is unique because of how “we're integrating it in the way we do business.”