At the forefront of Artificial Intelligence

EyeD Optical Mouse with SecuDesktop2000

In an age of increasing online transactions, the number of passwords and usernames for each person is getting larger and larger by the day. Biometrics looks at eliminating passwords by using physical traits of one's body, such as fingerprinting, voice signatures, even iris and retinal scans.

SecuGen's EyeD Optical Mouse is an optical mouse (no roller ball), with a standard three button setup (left and right buttons and a third button in the scroll wheel). Additionally, this mouse has a built-in fingerprint sensor to allow the user to quickly have his/her thumbprint taken.

Installation

Since the device is USB (although it is also available in a serial port version), installation is a breeze. When I plugged the device into my USB hub, Windows detected it and installed all the necessary drivers. Installation of the mouse took under two minutes to complete - it couldn't have been easier. After that I installed SecuDesktop2000 which also took under 5 minutes to complete.

Also, since the device is USB it allows multiple mouses to be used simultaneously. I've kept my Microsoft Optical mouse since I like the web buttons on the side of it. The Microsoft mouse is also slightly more responsive than the SecuGen one.

Functionality

After installation is completed, you are asked to enroll an administrator. This is because SecuDesktop2000 allows for multiple users, so one user needs to have master access to all functions. Enrolling simply requires filling in a few fields, such as a username, name and an emergency password before you are required to be fingerprinted.

Being fingerprinted is a very simple process as you can tell from the screenshot below:

After this is done the enrollment is complete. You now have access to the various parts of SecuDesktop2000: SecuManager, SecuLogon, SecuFolder, SecuSaver and SecuViewer.

SecuDesktop2000

SecuLogon

SecuLogon enables you log on onto Windows using your fingerprint. You can opt either have the user select a username and then be fingerprinted, or be identified by their fingerprint. While the first method is more secure the second method is great if you only expect a limited number of people to use the computer.

The only problem I had with SecuLogon was that it couldn't be turned off! While it is great having a secure logon, it isn't always necessary for people just looking at securing certain documents/folders from prying eyes. Nevertheless, I'm now happy knowing that I'll know who has used my computer, when they used it and whether any unauthorized accesses occurred.

SecuSaver

SecuSaver takes your existing screensaver and adds fingerprinting security to it. The software claims it works with any screensaver but it didn't work with mine. Therefore, I wanted to turn it off, since I wasn't too bothered about that level of security. Yet again, I couldn't find any way of turning off the SecuSaver - you couldn't deselect it from the screensaver options in Windows nor could you turn it off in the SecuDesktop options. I ended up deleting all its related files manually.

SecuSaver is a great idea and definitely adds a great deal of security to your desktop, since it blacks out the desktop before running the screensaver as well as the fingerprinting. It also allows multiple people to unlock the screen (one person can be logged on, but another can disable it) but the fact it couldn't be turned off was very strange.

SecuFolder

SecuFolder is the part of SecuDesktop you will probably use the most - encrypting folders using your own fingerprint. SecuFolder allows you to encrypt nearly any folder on your computer, allowing only yourself (or a group of authorized people) access to it.

I had two problems with SecuFolder, though. Firstly, it was too secure! It secures both the folder and all files within the folder - you will need to need to be fingerprinted once to open the folder and once each time you open a file. While this is great for a lot of applications, for others it isn't optimal and there was no way to alter this behaviour. Secondly, the integration into Windows wasn't all that great. For example, if you opened a file in Microsoft Word, your secured directories would not show up. All secured files have to be accessed through Explorer. SAFLink's SaftyLatch did a much better job of shell integration.

Nevertheless, within Explorer, the ease and security of SecuFolder makes it an excellent choice for people wanting to secure important data.

SecuViewer

SecuViewer gives users a very thorough breakdown of the authentication activity that has occurred. It will log every access, logon, user added/deleted/modified, every folder encrypted and decrypted, even every screensaver occurrence. While this may be a little over-the-top for every day usage, if a security breach occurs, it will be very easy to ascertain exactly what happened. Just take a look at the screenshot to the right for a glimpse of what SecuViewer logs.

SecuManager

SecuManager oversees operations of all of these tools, allowing users to change their various options as well as various system settings. Obviously, settings are enabled and disabled according to the users security level. SecuManager has a simple and clean interface that allows adminstrators to do their job quickly and efficiently.

One good feature was the ability to specify folders that could not be encrypted. SecuFolder already understands that some folders (such as the Windows directory) cannot be encrypted, but if the administrator wants to ensure other public folders are not rendered inaccessible he can do so in SecuManager. I would have liked the ability to specify certain "System" folder that could be used by SecuFolder. For example, files on the Windows desktop could not be dragged on to a SecuFolder because they were apparently "system files" (in a subfolder of the Windows directory).

This aside, SecuManager definitely made adminstrating SecuDesktop2000 very easy.

Conclusion

The system is very easy to use, has brilliant response times and accuracy. The mouse is comfortable to use and the mouse wheel keeps it up-to-date with modern mouse designs. More "casual" users will find some of SecuDesktop's features tedious but companies that have sensitive data and need a complete security solution will find the EyeD Optical Mouse and SecuDesktop2000 an ideal solution.

Cover 8.4

Price: $129

Liked: Excellent mouse, fingerprint verification quick and accurate, excellent tools, very secure.

Disliked: SecuFolder couldn't be configured, SecuSaver couldn't be turned off.

Website: http://www.secugen.com/

Submitted: 07/10/2001

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