While researching products to include in this comparative review, we found five vendors that offer enterprise-level software for securing endpoints such as USB ports, CD/DVD drives, and so on. Although only two vendors chose to participate in the review, we mention the others here for the purposes of completeness.
- DriveLock (www.drivelock.com)
- FullArmor Endpoint Policy Manager (www.fullarmor.com)
- GFI Endpoint (www.gfi.com)
- GuardianEdge Removable Storage Encryption (www.guardianedge.com)
In addition, Microsoft added functionality in Windows XP SP2, with which you can make USB devices Read Only. My original intention was to provide a detailed comparison of this feature with the features of the two products in the main review. However, the XP SP2 option amounts to a simple registry entry and doesn’t offer any of DeviceLock’s or Endpoint Access Manager’s advanced features. At any rate, you can find more information about the XP SP2 functionality in John Savill’s FAQ article, “How can I mark my USB storage devices as read-only?” (InstantDoc ID 44380).
