Re: pointsec vs. Guardian Edge

["Maloney, Michael" <MMaloney () MIDDLESEXCC EDU>]

We use Pointsec here at Middlesex for our laptops, and so far no
problems with it.  Little to no effect on laptop performance accessing
the drive when using AES encryption, and other than the pre-boot
authentication, end users don't even know it's there.  I like the
ability to deploy updates remotely, and the users like the Single Sign
On (SSO).  It's very flexible in it's permissions as to what the user
can do within Pointsec (all our end users can only log on to the laptop,
they don't have access to the admin console that gets installed). 

My only gripes with Pointsec is their manuals are extremely vague (ie
they don't tell you that you can't remotely update a Pointsec login
created locally on the laptop, only ones created via the central admin
console can) and they can be a little slow on returning help desk calls.
The program does have the ability to give a user a 1 time login in the
event they forget their password, but we were never able to implement it
because our passwords are longer than their challenge/auth can handle.
Supposedly this is in the process of being fixed in a later update

Also, boot manager or restoration utilities (System Commander, Go Back
etc) will either not work or break Pointsec.

They did a good job of being able to recover a laptop that is causing
problems. On a outside job I've had to use the recovery media to recover
a laptop that was blue-screening after boot (not long after the user
made the statement that he was going to get rid of Pointsec).  I was
able to de-crypt the laptop with the recovery media, fix the problem and
re-encrypt it.


********************************************
Mike Maloney
Sr. System Engineer
Middlesex County College
2600 Woodbridge Avenue
Edison, NJ 08818
Phone: 732-906-7754
Cell: 908-217-2086
Fax: 732-906-4266
Email: MMaloney () middlesexcc edu
********************************************

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Brukbacher [mailto:sab2 () UWM EDU] 
Sent: Friday, January 12, 2007 10:16 AM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: [SECURITY] pointsec vs. Guardian Edge

Hello,
We are looking into whole hard drive encryption products.  We've 
narrowed it down to Pointsec and Guardian Edge. Anyone have experience 
with either of these or both?  Are you aware of any issues related to 
supportability that a buyer should be aware of?

-- 
Steve Brukbacher, CISSP
University of Wisconsin Milwaukee
Information Security Coordinator
UWM Computer Security Web Site
www.security.uwm.edu
Phone: 414.229.2224