Review: Fully Seen, Fully Secured

More specifically, the end-point security management software's scanning produces information on processes, applications, startup commands and toolbars that are being used. The tool also can identify services and applications that are not permissible or fall outside registered software licenses. In addition, Spectator can identify missing services and unapplied service packs.

Spectator arrives with some network change management capabilities, such as hardening registry values by controlling and reverting registry entries if unauthorized changes are made. If a malicious program tries to change registry values, Spectator will automatically change all the registry settings back. Spectator also supports Microsoft Windows Vista.

When downloading a Promisec evaluation, make sure to obtain a license key. The company does not have a standard time-based license for Spectator Professional on its Web site. The software works on Windows NT and above, so CRN Test Center engineers installed it on a Windows 2003 server. If .Net is not already installed the product installation will install .Net framework 2.0.

Port 445 must be open for administrators to gain remote access to end points. Remote registry and file and print sharing must be active on all end points. Remote procedure call access also needs to be enabled.

The software is simple to use when connected to Microsoft Active Directory. Spectator 3.1, the version available at review time, did not support access to end points when running a Windows server in stand-alone mode, unless the Spectator server and all end points were running with the same authentication credentials. Spectator 3.2 fixed that limitation.

Spectator is agentless, so setup takes minutes. Engineers used a stand-alone Windows 2003 server and were not able to scan any machines with version 3.1. Engineers received "access denied" messages even after matching authentication credentials. They experimented with levels of access to remote shares but were not successful. Even with administrative privileges, engineers could not complete the scan. Users need to have the same authentication in order for the system to recognize them.

Version 3.2 can use different authentication credentials. With the help of Promisec, engineers were able to set up new user names to log onto end points. This version arrives with a credentials management feature that uses host credentials without having to access Active Directory.

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