Enhance your desktop security
Protecting your desktop computers against unwanted access is a major
chore. Windows 95 doesn't provide much protection against unwanted access,
nor does it let you audit local workstation activity. Windows NT offers some
auditing and access control, but room for improvement exists. You don't have to
wait for Microsoft to make improvements, however. You can use AXENT
Technologies' PCShield, a software add-on that enhances NT and Win95 desktop
security. The software adds new features and control mechanisms to your
OS's existing security setup. In addi-tion, PCShield scales well and fits
into most networks.
Installation
To install PCShield, you must install the software's Security Manager
component, build a security database by configuring security settings, and build
an installation kit. After I built the security database, I used the
installation kit to install PCShield on my client workstations.
To install the Security Manager, I defined an installation directory, and the
setup wizard copied all the necessary files into this directory. Then I clicked
Security Manager on the Start menu.
When I ran Security Manager for the first time, the software's Getting
Started dialog box guided me through each step of creating the security database
and installation kit. To create the database, I clicked File, New. Then I
defined a password and passphrase for the database, to which only security
administrators would have access. I defined a directory path to store the
database on and I modified the security policies.
PCShield has eight built-in security policy templates for desktop, notebook
computer, and Microsoft Office users. The software also includes a standard
system security policy template, as Screen 1 shows. You can configure PCShield
to accommodate a range of user needs. For example, to prevent users from placing
malicious software on your company's systems, you can configure PCShield to let
only programmers create files with extensions ending in .exe and .dll.
For my test, I modified an existing desktop template to provide security
for my network. After I defined the policies, I added users who were authorized
to access PCShield-enabled systems. I also defined groups and assigned
these groups to workstations. PCShield's user-group architecture is
similar to NT's architecture. However, the software's architecture doesn't
integrate into NT's user database, so you might need a substantial amount of
time to add more than a dozen users.
PCShield doesn't have an interface you can use to import user information
from NT servers. You can use the software's import facility to import
workstation and user information from text files, but you must create a
comma-delimited text file before you can import the files. You can use a Microsoft
Windows NT Server 4.0 Resource Kit tool to dump a list of users out to a
file.
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