Features

Transporting a laptop in a vehicle, it is often too easy to become careless and leave it in full view, inviting a smashed window, loss of expensive equipment and possibly months of work. There is no guarantee that thieves will not break into your car, so a mobile safe is a good investment.

SecureDoc is a disk encryption product that codes the entire hard disk, including operating system files and boot sector. Therefore it provides authentication of the user before the computer even boots up. It can also be used to encrypt all types of removable drives and media, including Flash cards. Although it can be installed in a password-only single-user environment, it provides an upgrade path to full enterprise-wide PKI and two- and three-factor authentication, integrating with third-party tokens.

RSA SureFile combines RSA's encryption technology alongside PKWARE's PKZIP to create an encryption product that also compresses files and folders to save space and bandwidth. Because encrypted files are generally fairly random looking, they are incompressible by hardware that may be part of a bandwidth-saving infrastructure. So, it is better to compress files before encryption, or optimize both processes within one product as RSA Security has done.

FileAssurity Open PGP is designed to be a low-cost alternative to PGP, while retaining full compatibility with PGP. With it, you can generate, import and export X.509 and PGP keys and it also supports encryption/decryption and digital signing/verifying of standard PGP files. Files or folders may be encrypted for storage or transmission by email. Bulk data encryption is carried out using 256-bit AES, with public-key-based Diffie-Hellman being used for session key exchange. RSA and DSS are used for digital signatures. Another feature is secure deletion according to U.S. government DOD 5220.22M. All 32-bit Windows platforms are supported.

Encryption Plus Hard Disk encrypts entire hard disks or selected partitions. Encryption of the OS files is optional. It also offers pre-boot authentication whether or not the operating system files are encrypted.

DESlock+ is designed to encrypt files, folders, email messages and email attachments. It uses a choice of 112-bit 3DES, 128-bit Blowfish or 128-bit AES encryption algorithms and works with Windows 98/ME/2000/XP.

Dekart Security Suite comprises four separate applications that support all 32-bit versions of Windows and share the same two-factor authentication feature, which uses a PIN code and a USB token or smart card. You can use most third-party tokens and smart cards. Additionally, most types of Bio API and HA API compatible biometric verification devices are supported.

Adhaero Doc is not a general-purpose encryption product, but it uses encryption technology to secure Microsoft Office files throughout their lifecycle. It also integrates with Microsoft Outlook to provide the same protection to emails. It is best described as a digital rights management product.

Cyber-Ark's Inter-Business Vault is designed to protect confidential files in an extranet environment, where secure file sharing with remote offices and business partners is demanded. This requires a combination of secure file storage, encryption for files in transit, authentication and access control. There are many products that tackle these problems individually. For example, a virtual private network (VPN) encrypts files in transit, and access controls are built into modern operating systems. However, OS access controls can often be bypassed simply because unhardened operating systems are themselves so easy to compromise. Inter-Business Vault aims to address all of these problems by integrating a VPN, authenticated access controls and encrypted file storage in a very secure solution.

CyberAngel is actually one of several competing packages on the market in the U.S. and Canada that allows a central monitoring station to detect when an unauthorized access to a PC or notebook has taken place, and alerts the owner accordingly.

PDAs are so portable as to make them susceptible to loss or theft - in a business environment the net result of this can range from inconvenience and embarrassment, right on up to serious problems with the regulatory authorities. Which is where SafeGuard PDA enters the frame. Like similar offerings from F-Secure and Pointsec, the software is designed to make a Pocket PC-based PDA as secure as electronically possible.

Managing a network has never been easy, whether it comprises 100 or 100,000 machines. Even with a dedicated network administrator, the overheads are horrendous. Rolling out new applications, checking for non-licensed software, looking at network traffic... full-time tasks that often have no one with a full-time job to attend to them. This becomes even more worrying when you consider the security implications.

All your personal needs for sign-on can be secured and at the same time simplified by Password Officer Deluxe. This suite is essentially a repository for an individual's passwords so that he or she doesn't have to record them, but it also manages them in several important respects that make the sign-on process to any system, program, database, web site or other resource easier and safer.

One-factor authentication (user IDs and password) is still the most widely used method, primarily because it is simple, easy and there are no pieces of hardware to configure. But there are many applications where this is just not secure enough. In two-factor authentication, not only do users need to know a PIN but they also need to possess the correct token. This higher level of security, combined with the token's memory and cryptographic processing capabilities, makes it particularly attractive as a solution for many situations such as digitally signing documents and mails and authenticating the user remotely for access to corporate networks through VPNs.

Wayport has been something of a pioneer for road warriors, offering telephone-enabled cubicles - known as Laptop Lanes - at major airports across the U.S.

The Cloud, a division of Inspired Broadcast Networks, is something of a low profile public Wi-Fi network, preferring to stay in the background as a wholesale wireless network operator.
When the service was launched earlier this year, the company offered access through two options, pay-as-you-use sessions from a variety of outlets, or through third parties, such as BT OpenZone, whose users can now roam seamlessly onto The Cloud's network.

Known as Megabeam until late last year, Swisscom Eurospot is able to offer service at more than 1,100 venues.

Like iPass, GRIC is one of the world's two major internet roaming facilitators, with services aimed at both business and consumer users.

Like the GRIC service reviewed elsewhere, iPass acts an intermediary/facilitator for internet service roaming. Unlike GRIC, which primarily serves consumers, iPass is more tailored for the enterprise.

Since our last look at this product in June 2002, BT has completed roaming arrangements with several other networks and now has quite a healthy coverage of most major cities in the U.K.