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 ====================== roberts@decus.ca rslade@vcn.bc.ca slade@freenet.victoria.bc.ca "Mum, why do you have to brush and brush and brush?" "To get all the knots out of my hair before I blowdry it" Pause...look... "Well, I didn't see any fall out..." Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" 0-387-94663-2 (800-SPRINGER)