René Millman

The mGuard security appliance from Innominate claims to be the smallest in the world - measuring in at 20 by 56 by 95mm. It is a firewall and IPSec VPN device that attaches on the back of a desktop computer or server and provides for secure transmission of data from the computer to the internet.

Micro-Solutions have a nifty device that combines a hard drive with a fingerprint sensor. The idea is a user can only access their own files if they have provided the right authentication. In this instance the right fingerprint.

That aside, having a restore point is something of some worth and this product takes the concept a lot further. Recovery Manager is a networked version of the same thing but with a few more bells and whistles attached.

A book about the inner workings of the hacker's mind would not be complete without mentioning the world's most famous hacker, Kevin Mitnick. This book does not disappoint in that respect. This book deals with getting inside the mind of a hacker. It a kind of "know your enemy"-type book.

Encrypting files while becoming a necessary part of security has remained somewhat of complex beast to understand and perform. This product aims to strip away the hard work of encrypting batches of files coing into and going out of the enterprise.

Encrypting email is a must for the paranoid among us, and Crypto Anywhere provides the tools necessary to encrypt and decrypt email messages. Among its new features are Outlook integration and the ability to create an executable that can run off a floppy or flash disk, thereby circumventing the need to install software on a terminal when using Crypto Anywhere in an internet café.

The software prides itself on its ability to deal with more compression file types than WinZip as well as 256-bit AES encryption (which can be found in WinZip 9.0). Setting up is easy enough and offers a wizard just as WinZip does. The installation is slightly less convoluted than WinZip.

On first appearance this router would seem another ho-hum product for sharing an internet connection within a small office/branch office, but looks can be deceiving. There maybe be similar looking devices on the market for a fraction of the price of this product but the amount of features make it a worthwhile consideration.

Securing data when it leaves an organisation is always a problem. Despite user education, a laptop can all too easily be left in a cab and, if not properly secure, information is left in the clear for all to see. Even when software encryption is used, there is still a chance that it can be decrypted.