1.1 What is AbsoluteLock? -------------------------------------
AbsoluteLock is a system and harddisk security tool, which uses
the only acceptable method to assure a really secure protection
solution for your data. After you have installed AbsoluteLock
to your system, you will be asked to enter a password everytime
you boot your computer. If the password is incorrect the access
will be denied, if a user tries to boot from a floppy disk, the
protected harddrive(s) will still not be accessable at all.
If you have source codes, other kind of sensetive files or
simply want to keep your harddisk locked against others,
you need to find a way to secure your system so, that you
are the only person who is able to access your data.
You might have already discovered that using the BIOS
password protection is simply not safe enough, if you
honestly want to protect your system against intruders.
Removing the CMOS battery, using the universial password
or replacing a harddisk into another computer system would
disclose total access to your data without even
knowing your password. Other worthless protection shemes
such as a program which is called within autoexec.bat or
a driver which gets executed in config.sys are also very
easy to be removed. Boot from a floppy disk and you will
have full access to your harddrives again, can remove the
line in config.sys or where ever it is.
Within Microsoft(R) Windows(TM) several programs offer
the possibility to secure folders by asking for a password
everytime you want to access the protected folder.
These kind of security products a) slow down your working
process, b) folders can usually be accessed from a DOS
environment, booted e.g. from a floppy disk c) cannot
protect all data (configuration files, system files...)
because these programs only run under Windows and thus
conflict with the OS if e.g. the \windows directory
would be protected.
Similar weak security offer "protected environment"
operation systems such as Windows NT or Windows 2000.
If you want to bypass the LOGIN, you can again simply
boot from a floppy disk, if the harddisk uses the
NT file system (NTFS) you run a program like NTFDS(5)
and you are again able to access all files (patch or
delete the SAM file in config32\ and can login into
Windows without password).
In fact, most protection system prompt for a password
write that password either in encrypted or plain form
to disk, when the user wants to log in, the program
again prompts for the password and compares it with the
one which was written to disk. AbsoluteLock uses a lot
more secure variant, it encrypts code which is neccesary
for the system to run and even to access the harddrive
(either from a floppy boot or from hdd boot). The area
which is password encrypted by AbsoluteLock is called
"partitiontable", the code which is followed by the
masterbootrecord of every IBM, PS/2 or compatible
computer system independent which operationsystem
is installed. Registered users also have the possibility
to encrypt the "bootsector" and do a "partly FAT
encryption" for additional security.
Due to this method, the password is neither in plain nor
in encrypted form written anywhere to disk.
