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Now in version 3.6, the Tsunami VPN appliance sports a simpler management interface and new tools for managing access rules, as well as the ability to send password expiration warnings to remote users who authenticate against NT domains.

This product is built upon Sun's very secure Trusted Solaris 8 operating system, which has been used by the U.S. Department of Defense for over 25 years. It is a hardened version of the Solaris operating system platform for deployment of high-security desktops, database servers, firewalls, and communication gateways.

Many companies are looking to secure their networks from wardriving attacks and the current advice is to put a VPN behind a wireless access point. With this in mind, the following product should be ideal. The aim of the product is to secure access to network infrastructure from wireless clients using the wireless transport layer security (WTLS) protocol, which is a wireless version of SSL.

The SafeGuard Biometrics product is straightforward in concept and execution, making use of smartcard and biometric technology to provide strong identity verification for workstation and network access, as well as making the same functionality available to other services such as email clients and the use of certificates.

Guardware produces a variety of innovative products, all of which have been well received. It was interesting, therefore, to see a keyboard product with integral fingerprint reader from this Hungarian company (although the keyboard is actually made in China).

The NEC TouchPass system will appeal to systems administrators looking to integrate biometric verification into the organizational network access security routines.

An ingenious little device from Meganet Corporation to enable secure portable data storage, the USB token incorporates a fingerprint biometric sensor and a simple interface of 3 LEDs to inform the user of status.

This appliance hails from a Swedish company that has been going since 1997. The software runs on a Sun Netra X1 box (1U in size). It also has the widest range of client types we saw in this test.

Aventail was probably the first company to conceive and market the idea of the clientless SSL VPN. However it has only recently brought out its own hardware appliance that does such a job.

The Instant Virtual Extranet (IVE) Access 3000 from Neoteris is a hardware/software hybrid SSL VPN appliance that offers users access to network resources securely. These resources also encompass web-enabled applications and email software (Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange), as well as Unix file shares.

iInventory is the latest version of LANauditor, which was launched back in 1990. This package can audit not only Windows-based PCs but also Macs and Linux systems. However the console that runs the whole show must be installed under Windows. The vendors recommend installing the software on a workstation instead of a server as it is claimed it is more secure, offers greater data throughput and clients do not need to access any part of the main program or data.

K2 builds upon KeyServer's success as a desktop management application to include auditing, in effect integrating software auditing and metering into one package. The client end can run on Windows, Macs and thin-clients, while the server can be hosted from any Windows-based PC as well as Macs, Novell Netware and Linux/ Unix.

PC-Duo from Vector Networks has now reached version 2.0. The suite comprises of modular components that can be bought in when needs dictate. Like other desktop management systems PC-Duo includes modules such as Inventory Management, Remote Control, Software Distribution, Diagnostics, Software Metering, and web-based helpdesk tracking.

This software is very much aimed at the auditing and information security industry and those that work within that field. It is basically a tool to audit information security in an automated fashion.

Tally Systems comes back with a number of improvements to its inventory software. The package can provide a one-stop shop for data that can be tied into various helpdesk systems that work with the software.

This inventory application uses a technology called Lanprobe to meter software usage and discover devices on a network.

GASP is probably most famous for being the auditing software of choice for the Business Software Alliance. A free download of a version of this software is available on its web site. However, it can only audit up to 100 PCs and is time-limited. The version we reviewed is very much angled at the enterprise managing thousands of systems.

A complete Tripwire system consists of two components: Tripwire for Servers, which is an agent that must be installed on all servers that are to be protected; and Tripwire Manager, which provides central management for any number of Tripwire for Servers agents. Communications between server agents and management workstation are secured using the secure sockets layer (SSL) protocol.

Applock/Web works for web servers based on Microsoft IIS running on Windows NT/2000. It locks down both operating system and web server application. It auto-discovers which files are associated with web server functions (this may include web content and web scripts) and locks them down. It works within the operating system at the kernel level.

The software we received for this test was a pre-release of version 8, but initial observations tell us that any tweaks before the final version will probably be very minor ones.