general laptop security

[Guest_imported]

What are policies should I implement to ensure that my remote consulting staff have secure Win98 laptops? We currently require power on passwords. What prevents someone from getting into vital information while the consultnat is away from their laptop? The Win98 screensaver does not work. Is there another screensaver with security in mind that would do the trick? Any advise on security procedures for laptops is welcome.

 

[bjverzal]

Well, "Secure" and "Win98" are mutually exclusive. You can't have one with the other. Either go to Win-2000/XP, or accept that there will be loopholes in the security.

Bill.

 

[GoldenEternity]

You should probably look into encrypted volumes or filesystems. But that doesn't do any good if the user walks away from their system after typing in the password for the encrypted volume...

2k is a superior product, but its built in security doesn't help much when you pop out the hard drive and mount it as a slave.

 

[chiph]

I think Toshiba has a new laptop that requires a fingerprint to start up. I've only seen it advertised, so I don't know much more than that. No idea if it prevents the "steal the harddrive" problem that GoldenEternity mentions.

Chip H.

 

[SteveTheGeek]

I imagine you're sticking with Win98 so that the consultants can plug in to various networks without Administrator access to the networks as would be the case with NT/2K/XP. I'm not aware of any inherently secure Win9x screensaver. If you don't want to go to XP, consider getting a third-party app enabling you to encrypt sensitive folders with PGP, but this still requires your consultants to not walk away with the encryption password already entered.
-Steve

 

[brianpaterson]

Get a harddrive encryption tool which includes a USB fob which hold the private key. These are hot swappable and can be pulled out to automatically lock out casual users.

Brian

But, again, Win98 is a sieve

 

[Guest_imported]

In order to secue the data on any hard drive you must encrypt it. There is a product called SafeGuard Easy that will encrypt the data on the hard drive, forcing an authentication at system start and includes a secure screen saver as well. The product is available from Utimaco Safeware.