PCWDARMR.RVW 931228
Comparison Review
Company and product:
Fischer International Systems Corporation
P. O. Box 9107
4073 Merchantile Avenue
Naples, Florida 33942
813-643-1500
800-237-4510
Watchdog Armor card
Summary: hardware card which enhances the security of Watchdog
Cost
Rating (1-4, 1 = poor, 4 = very good)
"Friendliness"
Installation 2
Ease of use 3
Compatibility 3
Company
Stability 3
Support 3
Documentation 3
Hardware required 4
Performance 3
Availability 2
Local Support 2
General Description:
The Watchdog Armor is a hardware enhancement to the Watchdog general security
system. A primary virus control feature is prevention of floppy boot.
Although upgradable by software, the system has provision for prevention of
corruption by software.
Comparison of features and specifications
User Friendliness
Installation
The package, if ordered as a separate upgrade to the Watchdog PC Data Security
product, is shipped with one unprotected 720K diskette. Installation requires
the Watchdog software, and I would recommend ordering the whole package at once
if you want the hardware protection. Retrofitting is certainly possible, but
it is probably easier to install the whole package than to upgrade the hardware
after. The Armor hardware and software is integrated with the PC Security
software and some accommodations must be made. As only one example, the
software controlling diskette booting must be turned off before the card is
installed.
The installation process must be followed carefully, but it is relatively
straightforward for any user who has installed cards in the computer before.
The configuration of the card must be set with jumper switches (a program is
provided to check for appropriate memory locations), the card itself is
installed, the card is verified, and the Watchdog System Administrator program
is updated.
Ease of use
Control of the hardware setup is quite easy, and the functions are thereafter
part of the Watchdog program itself.
Compatibility
The functions of the Watchdog Armor card appear to be limited to boot
protection and hardware encryption, and should not present problems with
compatibility.
Company Stability
Fischer is well established in the security field, and has a good reputation in
mainframe security.
Company Support
My experience with the company on other occasions has been very favorable.
This program has now been reviewed twice. Fischer responded to my first
review, and shipped the updated version 7, which addressed many of the
criticisms I had of version 6. Note that, although I make every effort to
provide an opportunity for a response from vendors, commercial software houses
have been singularly lacking in responding, and so the response itself is a
point in Fischer's favour.
Documentation
The documentation refers only to installation and removal of the card, but is
clear and well organized.
System Requirements
Since the operations do not seem to affect disk access (as in regard to disk
activity monitoring or operation restriction) and the card is not a replacement
or adjunct to disk controller cards, the product can be used with any type of
BIOS/Intel machine with an ISA or related bus. (This includes just about
anything.)
Performance
A concern with software upgradable hardware is that the hardware is subject to
attack by software which can mimic the upgrade function. The Armor card is
software upgradable. However, the card has a physical switch which must be set
in order to perform the upgrade. If the switch is inadvertantly left in the
writable position, the user is warned at each boot.
Local Support
The company has an 800 number (which even works from Canada) and Internet
access.
Support Requirements
Use of the card should not add any additional support requirements beyond the
use of Watchdog itself.
copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 PCWDARMR.RVW 931228
==============
Vancouver ROBERTS@decus.ca | "A ship in a harbour
Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca | is safe, but that is
Research into rslade@cue.bc.ca | not what ships are
User p1@CyberStore.ca | built for."
Security Canada V7K 2G6 | John Parks