CornerStone Keeps Malware at Bay

Centurion Technologies CompuGuard CornerStone ensures that malware will not cause lasting damage and is particularly useful for systems deployed in training labs, classrooms or kiosks.

CornerStone, priced at $42 per workstation, is not meant to be a replacement for virus/worm detection and cleaning mechanisms, but it offers a measure of protection for Windows XP and Windows 2000 stations by stubbornly refusing to save any changes made to the operating system.

When protection is enabled, CornerStone writes all system changes to a temporary storage area on the hard drive, which is wiped clean at each reboot.

Centurions CCC (CompuGuard Control Center) management platform lets administrators centrally configure and update multiple CornerStone-enabled systems from a central server. CCC, sold separately for $200 to manage up to 50 systems, makes CornerStone more attractive to larger deployments.

To save important files, CornerStone let me configure a permanent storage area and map a drive letter to this area. Administrators must train users to save documents to this drive or to the network because everything else will be wiped clean at restart.

From the CCC, I could schedule a Disable Protection command and a reboot and time it to coordinate with automated patching solutions. For administrators concerned about USB memory keys being used to steal data or introduce malware, CompuGuard can also be used to block access to USB storage devices.

For more information, check out www.centuriontech.com.

Check out eWEEK.coms for the latest security news, reviews and analysis. And for insights on security coverage around the Web, take a look at eWEEK.com Security Center Editor Larry Seltzers Weblog.