BBS in a Box 2/BBS in a box - Trilogy II.iso/Files/Mag/A/A.M.E. Review

Text File | 1991-01-26 | 7.8 KB | 161 lines | [TEXT/MSWD]

A.M.E. for Macintosh Security
The Access Managed Environment Program
By L. Frank Turovich
Copyright ©1990, All Rights Reserved.


Due to the Access Managed Environment (hereafter referred to as AME)
dealing with computer security, I thought it prudent to read some of
the manual prior to loading and running AME. Was I glad I did.  This
program is SERIOUS about security folks. AME guarantees to wipe out
ALL the information on your drive if installed incorrectly or feels it
has been compromised in some way. AME modifies the drive software that
boots your hard drive and will prevent any further modification or
tampering of the drive's contents.

AME allows the system administrator to restrict access to
applications, files, printers, and desk accessories.  Applications can
be run but not copied, files read but not saved or printed, file
encryption up to Dept. of Defense standards, password protection of
applications, folders, files, disks, the secure erasure of files,
automatic password updating, and much more.


The Package
The AME package comes with both an Administrator and
Basic user manuals, the AME program disk, a Virus RX disk, and a sheet
listing all programs and hard drives known to be incompatible with
AME. Some of the programs include Disk Express II, SuperPaint 1.1,
Adobe Seperator 2.0, Tops 2.0, and some shareware INIT's.  The only
drive incompatability is with Iomega Bernoulli drives.


Setup
Loading the software was easy, if a bit time consuming. First a
total backup of your hard disk is highly recommended. In my case, that
meant over an hour of disk swapping before being able to load AME into
my system. Then, a power down and restart using the AME disk. A
double-click on the Install/Update icon started the process. AME loads
itself onto disk as well as installing the AME DA into the System
file.

Once all files are loaded AME proceeds to protect your hard disk. A
window with a completion scale is shown and filled as AME maps and
protects all files on the hard drive.  This is a lengthy process and
the documentation warns that any  interruption of this critical
procedure will destroy all data on the drive.

After about 20 minutes, AME had finished securing my hard drive.  Now
it was time to set the security levels I required to protect my system
from intrusion.  Using the AME DA I was soon able to setup three
different levels of security; one for me as the system administrator,
one for my wife, and one for a low- level test persona.  A single
click on any icon in the AME DA window allows the system administrator
to set users, file privileges, printer access, general AME guidelines
and global preferences, as well as define the activities log and get
program help.  Setting all of these was easy and required only
answering some questions by clicking on buttons.


Security
First off, AME provides access security to a protected
computer.  A sign-on window appears at startup requesting your name
and password if required.  Anyone who attempts to start the protected
computer using a floppy disk will not see a secured hard disk on the
desktop or be allowed to access it any other way.   Once past the
sign-in window, AME becomes totally transparent to the user, waiting
in the background watching for any unauthorized activity.

AME provides for applications, folders, disks, and files to be
password protected or disk key protected, denying access to any
unauthorized user.  Passwords can be set for accessing the computer,
opening applications, folders, disks, or files. They can also be set
to require a specific number of letters, be changed at periodic
intervals, be case sensitive, and other requirements depending on how
secure the computer needs to be. Key disks require the insertion of a
key disk to open a protected application or file.

Files can also be saved encrypted in two forms, AME's quick encryption
method or DES (Data Encryption Standard).  AME's fast encryption is up
to 35 times faster than DES but not as secure.  DES offers greater
security but is much slower to implement.

File deletion can also be secure and AME offers three choices.  The
simplest erases the file from the volume index only.  The Finder as
well as many applications use this method exclusively.  The next
deletes the file from the volume index, but also clears the sections
of the hard disk where the file resided.  This is better, but some
recovery programs can also retrieve information from these wiped disk
sections.  The best is up to Dept. of Defense standards and wipes the
file from the volume index and clears the file location seven times,
making it virtually impossible to recover.

AME is also watchful against virus infections.  AME has the ability to
"register" trusted applications, ie. applications not already infected
with a virus, and monitor it against changes.  If AME detects a change
in an application, it will refuse to run the application preventing
any further infection from happening.  AME can be told to run only
registered applications on the hard drive and refuse to run any
software from a floppy drive.  AME can also refuse all disk
insertions, or detect any attempts to modify the System file, other
popular methods of viral infection.

AME also provides a comprehensive activities log that will record
everything done while the computer is on.  This includes a user
signing on, signing off, running an application, accessing a DA or
printer, and the reading and writing of files, even temporary ones.
The log can be filtered so that only specified events will be
recorded.


Daily Use
In daily use over the last few weeks AME has been totally
unobtrusive, something I was unsure of at the beginning.  Except for
answering the log-on window at startup time, AME went about its
monitoring without interfering at all with my work.

I used AME with both the Finder and MultiFinder and never had a system
problem that pointed to AME as the culprit.  All my applications
worked without trouble and except for the restrictions I placed on
different user levels I never noticed AME operating.  When I tried to
bypass a user level restriction, a polite alert would appear telling
me I couldn't "perform that operation."

Some pointers though, you will have to read the documentation to get
the full benefits from this package.    I found the manual to be very
straight forward with lessons in the early chapters explaining how to
setup and manage the AME environment.  Several real life examples with
solutions are offered in the back of the manual that explain the many
different uses AME can perform.

As the system administrator, you have full power to do anything on the
system, thus AME isn't a chore.  As a worker, it can sometimes get in
the way, but only if the setup by the system administrator is
ill-planned. It may take some fine tuning to get each access level
just right as I found out to my dismay. I had signed in my alternate
persona and went about modifying this article only to discover I
didn't have the ability at the current level to save my new work or
print it!  Needless to say I soon corrected that as the administrator,
but at the cost of losing nearly a half hour of writing.


Conclusion
A single user copy of the Access Managed Environment from Casady &
Greene, Inc. can be obtained for about $160. Packages of five or ten
copies can also be obtained for businesses with several computers.
Each copy of AME will only work on a single machine so one copy is
needed for each computer to be protected. AME's features are very
comprehensive and offer computer security for everyone from a single
user at home to a completely networked office with diverse security
needs.

All-in-all I was very impressed with the AME package. It didn't
interfere with my work in the slightest and refused all attempts to
compromise it's security perimeter.  Whether your security
requirements are simple of complex AME is an excellent choice to make
in safeguarding your valuable data.

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