“ZoneAlarm DataLock” |
| Posted: 01 Nov 2010 03:21 PM PDT
Share this pageSocial Sharing Sponsored by: 
They're lurking out there right now, and they want your laptop. You may run into an organized laptop-theft gang at the airport or an opportunistic bag-grabber on the subway platform. Or you may just leave the darn thing in a cab. Worse than loss of the device, though, is the potential loss of sensitive personal or business information it contains. The whole-disk encryption offered by ZoneAlarm DataLock ($39.95 direct) ensures that even if the bad guys snatch your laptop or netbook they won't get your data. DataLock actively encrypts the laptop's hard drives and decrypts as needed—but only if you give the password. A thief without the password won't be able to boot the system. Taking out the drive and installing in another system will do no good, as the data remains encrypted. It's definitely a good concept for protecting data on a vulnerable computer. Why DataLock? The key differentiator for DataLock, though, is support. If you ever forget your password or otherwise have trouble accessing your encrypted laptop ZoneAlarm offers telephone support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Try ringing up Microsoft when you've forgotten your BitLocker password! Even if you've let your initial one-year support subscription lapse you're still covered. You can renew and get help all in the same call. There are several other layers of precautions to make sure that you and nobody else can access your data. The installer requires that you check a box indicating you understand the importance of backing up important files. It also offers a link to activate the 2 GB of free online backup (powered by iDrive (Spring 2010) (Free, 3.5 stars)) that comes with your DataLock purchase. As part of the install process you must also create a recovery disk. You can choose CD, diskette, or USB drive depending on your laptop's boot capabilities. After creating the recovery disk, store it somewhere safe. Now if your laptop crashes and won't start normally you can boot from the recovery media to decrypt the drives. To further protect your privacy DataLock offers a virtual keyboard for login. A software keylogger couldn't run before the operating system has loaded, and I don't even know how you'd install a hardware keylogger on a laptop. Still, for truly paranoid users the virtual keyboard will ensure that no keystrokes are logged. DataLock users also get a year of free Identity Guard protection, the same as that enjoyed by users of ZoneAlarm Extreme Security 2010 ($69.95 direct for three licenses, 4 stars). This includes daily monitoring for fraudulent activity related to your credit files, e-mail alerts of credit file changes, and free personal support from "credit education specialists." Note, too, that DataLock itself is included as part of the full ZoneAlarm security suite. DataLock in Action Encrypting your laptop's hard drive sounds scary, but this tool makes the process as smooth as possible. It starts by spelling out the four steps you'll go through: register online for tech support, create a username for login, install the product, and create a recovery disk. Then it walks you through each step, offering plenty of information. As soon as you reboot you'll see the new DataLock login screen. This first time you'll enter your username with a default password and then define a permanent password. This login screen appears every time you start the computer, naturally. Do note that to get DataLock's protection you must actually shut down the computer when not using it. Standby won't do the job and DataLock disables hibernation. The task of encrypting your drives starts immediately and runs in the background while you use the computer normally. You can shut down the system and restart later; the encryption process will pick up seamlessly where it left off. Encryption of my virtual machine's 8 GB hard drive took 15 minutes; bigger real-world drives will need proportionally longer. Next step was creation of recovery media. At first I made a recovery USB drive, forgetting that my virtual machines aren't configured to boot from USB. Running the wizard again to create an ISO image for a CD was simple enough. Thereafter the only difference in behavior was the necessary DataLock login on reboot. I tried changing the password and learned that you can't re-use an old password right away; that's a nice touch. An icon in the system tray provides access to settings and help along with links to identity protection, online backup, and online security resources. Seamless Recovery Just to see it work I booted from the recovery disk. This opened a login screen very similar to the main DataLock login, right down to the virtual keyboard option and the button to get help. After I logged in it simply gave me the choice to decrypt one or all of the system's drives. Simple! Worth the Price? My only concern is the price. Is this one component of ZoneAlarm Extreme Security worth more than half the price of the full suite? That really depends on the importance of the data it's protecting. On the plus side, if you can manage to avoid locking yourself out it's a one-time cost rather than a yearly subscription. Check your budget and consider the value of the data it will protect. Then make your decision. More Encryption reviews: This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Content Keyword RSS To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 comments:
Post a Comment