A little safer computer world

If you read the column last week then you are aware of some of the security measures that you can take to fortify your system against attacks. Well, this week you’ll see how corporations and hardware manufacturers are doing their part to help you. I found many of the new tactics innovative and long overdue, but for brevity’s’ sake I’m only going to focus on three methods.

Last week, I wrote a little blurb about the Silicon Digital Vault or SDV for short. I believe that the SDV is one of the leaders in the new cutting edge security devices. As I stated last week, it is installed onto the motherboard and begins guarding your computer when you boot up. Secure Systems, the company that makes the SDV, followed a different methodology when they designed they SDV. The SDV differs from conventional firewalls and protection software in that once it is installed it encrypts and secures the entire environment. When I say that the entire environment is secured, it isn’t an embellishment. The SDV can even provide protection from other computers on the same network. It can also begin logging keystrokes if its’ access policies are being compromised. If for some reason someone decides that they want to remove your hard drive from your computer to glean information from it, they may find themselves in a state of disappointment. The SDV will not allow that hard drive to boot up unless they boot up together. The near future for the SDV is to reduce the size to fit into cellular phones and PDAs, and also to make them able to be retrofited for older PCs.

The next item is from our good buddies at The Intel Corporation. They are releasing a security chip called the “Truth”. Intel will begin making their processors with the Truth embedded on them. I found the Truth to be a possibly doubled edged sword, depending on your cyber pastimes. It is designed to fight computer viruses, which is a good thing, and it is also a tool to police copyright materials on your system such as music and flicks. You may find the protection from viruses welcomed but may also find its’ other features suspect. No need to over alarm yourself though; it is scheduled for the 2003 Prescott line of chips.

The next form of security veers a little in application from the previous ones, but is no less cutting edge and useful. For all of us that like to shop and do it online, this can give us a little more piece of mind. Virtual Account Numbers and Disposable Credit Cards are one answer to more secure online shopping. They provide credit card security by generating random numbers for your online transactions. The credit card numbers are for one time use so this should decrease the fear of your number being stolen and used for unauthorized transactions. American Express, the Discover card, Citigroup and a few other credit card companies are already using this new technology.