Security Officer Professional 2.0 - Shareware Version
for Windows 95/98
Copyright 1999 Compelson Laboratories
Website: http://www.compelson.com
Email: support@compelson.com
Last Modified: 17 November 1999
AN INTRODUCTION
If you're reading this, than you have already downloaded Security Officer 2.0. Thank you! In these days of bloated software and interminable downloads -- often not worth the bandwidth -- we at COMPELSON LABORATORIES feel sure that you will be pleasantly surprised at the contents of this particular ZIP file. From the beginning we designed Security Officer to be different things to different users. For the advanced user, it is an indispensable power-tool offering unprecedented system security in even the most hostile of computing environments (such as a high-school computer lab or Internet cafe). For the beginner user however, with no-configuration necessary it is a straightforward and safe way to see what is really going on when you surf the net or run any application on your computer.
SIZE, POWER, & CONTROL
It might have a small footprint -- that is, file size -- but as you will find out when you run Security Officer for the first time, size ain't everything. Security Officer is a very powerful 32-bit application that runs "below" your other applications, deep inside the Windows operating system itself. Accessible at any time from your Windows taskbar, it has been painstakingly designed to offer you the most advanced internet and system monitoring available, total flexibility to configure it as you require, while utilizing next to none of your system's valuable resources.
THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS
You decide what situations deserve a Level 1 Security Defence and what situations deserve Level 2. You define what sorts of protections and monitoring make up a given "Level of Defense". You determine how Security Officer should react to possible security problems. For the beginner, or the casual user, Security Officer comes with default Level of Defense definitions which will respond to your system's environment automatically: for instance, switching into "Level 2" with "beefed-up" virus protection when a dial-up to the Internet is detected, or when logging onto the office LAN. But this is only one example. The possibilities are endless...
MORE THAN ANOTHER ANTI-VIRUS PROGRAM
VIRUS PROTECTION is certainly another important feature of Security Officer, but interestingly it does not protect by simply searching all files for all "known" viruses (as a scanner does), but rather Security Officer protects all programs on your computer, your hard-drive's system areas, even your floppy from the effects of viruses, all viruses -- even ones that haven't been invented yet. Even if you had a virus on your computer (and we sincerely hope that you do not), with Security Officer protecting your files, further infection would actually be impossible.
Further, Security Officer will not allow illicit actions by any programs. These include things like formatting of the hard-drive, destroying data, and damaging system areas of your hard-drive. Security Officer achieves by virtue of the fact that it is more than just another application, it also implements a revolutionary new driver which applies protection layers to the Kernel of Windows itself, protecting against both high-level attacks and low-level ones. This is what makes Security Officer so powerful. Many users are not aware that surprisingly, using a scan-based anti-virus program is actually worse for your system than using nothing at all (in the special case of an unknown virus being introduced to your system). This is due to the method by which anti-virus-scanners work (opening and closing your executables). Frighteningly, this can actually spread an unknown virus to every executable file on your system in a matter of minutes. Security Officer is the solution to this potentially serious problem when used in conjunction with your favourite scanning program.
And when protections in Security Officer are set correctly, even email viruses such as the W32/ExploreZIP.worm can do no harm. And on a larger scale, for corporations or governments, Security Officer Pro offers the same total protection of any given workstation with the added feature that an administrator may decide which
WHO NEEDS SECURITY OFFICER?
LAN ADMINISTRATORS
Perhaps you are the LAN administrator for your corporation. Use Security Officer to monitor who is accessing what sites, when, and for how long. Monitor total number of bytes downloaded or uploaded in a given session. Monitor what types of connections are being made to the internet (HTTP, FTP, SMTP, IRC, TELNET, etc.). Then export and save this information for later review. Or upgrade to Security Officer Pro for even more advanced features, such as filtering sites and/or content. For instance, set Security Officer Pro to ban downloading of MP3 files or files over a certain size. Protect your your corporation's bandwidth!
PEOPLE WHO SHARE WORKSTATIONS
Or maybe you are an employee that shares his workstation with several other people. Set Security Officer to hide or protect certain files and/or folders -- either from being read at all, or from being over-written. Set Security Officer to monitor attempts to access restricted documents or areas of your hard-drive. Even set Security Officer to monitor accesses (or attempted accesses) to the Security Officer configuration panel itself. Or in the case of Security Officer Pro, password-protect access to Security Officer Pro entirely. But there is more...
INTERNET CAFE OWNERS
Do you run an Internet cafe (or a computer lab)? If so, you are probably looking for a way to 1) protect and/or hide system critical file and folders which your clients have no business accessing 2) Monitor attempts to access these forbidden areas of a given workstation 3) disable access to the floppy drive 4) virus protection 5) screen certain websites from being accessed by your clients 6) monitor overall bandwidth usage 7) Log sites visited... Security Officer does all this and much more.
EVERYONE ELSE
The casual user maybe doesn't care what Microsoft Outlook 98 is really doing "deep down" when she checks her email. Maybe, and of course, that's fine. But we believe that even the casual user should be protected against Internet-borne viruses and the tampering with of sensitive documents. That is why Security Officer comes pre-configured for the average user with settings that might be considered "healthy protection" against the most common computer security problems (Word macro viruses, formatting of the hard-drive, unauthorized copying of files to floppy, and others). The advanced user of course, will jump right and in and begin tweaking, but for everybody else, Security Officer will be serving its primary function from the moment it is first run. And that was important to the way we saw Security Officer's ultimate role on YOUR computer.
TOP FEATURES IN SUMMARY:
* Internet Access Monitoring & Logging (HTTP, FTP, SMTP, etc.)
* Website Monitoring & Logging
* Bandwidth Monitoring (total bytes downloaded and uploaded on a certain workstation during a given session, for instance)
* Virus Protection
* File & Folder Protection (from Viruses, other users, etc.)
* System Monitoring & Logging (including installations)
* Dynamic Defense Systems (with auto-feature switching when logging onto the Internet or your LAN, for instance)
INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
To install Security Officer Professional, simply unzip the archive to any temp folder on your hard-drive and double-click on "install.exe". Follow standard online instructions. (Uninstalling is performed by running this same file.)
ONLINE SUPPORT
For more information about Security Officer or any other COMPELSON product please visit us online at http://www.compelson.com. With specific questions please email us at support@compelson.com and we will promptly get back to you.
