|
BOSaNOVA Adds Antivirus, Biometeric Authentication to Thin Clients
Published: September 26, 2006
by Alex Woodie
iSeries thin client maker BOSaNOVA has bolstered the security of its products through the addition of antivirus scanning and biometric authentication, which were unveiled at the COMMON conference in Miami Beach last week.
First, the Phoenix, Arizona, company announced a deal with CA that will see CA's antivirus software, called eTrust, preloaded onto BOSaNOVA's Windows XP Embedded (XPe) thin clients. The addition of antivirus protection to the thin clients will help eliminate a potential security issue with the thin client devices, according to Martin Pladgeman, president of BOSaNOVA.
Windows XPe isn't as susceptible to viruses as the full-blown Windows XP, but there is a risk of propagating viruses, Pladgeman explained at the COMMON show last week. Because thin clients don't have a disk drive and use "disk on memory" technology that wipes away configuration changes made to the system, disk-less thin clients are practically immune from traditional viruses. The biggest threat involves using an XPe-based thin client that propagates viruses within a network, and in turn endangers other network-attached PCs running the full Windows versions.
Pladgeman considered putting Symantec's Norton suite on the thin clients, but Norton's large memory footprint made that unpractical. "Thin clients don't require the same virus protection as a PC, therefore it is important that the antivirus software included should be the right fit for the environment," he says.
BOSaNOVA also announced a partnership with Valid Technologies, a developer of biometric authentication software for iSeries environments. As part of the deal, BOSaNOVA will include Valid's authentication software on its devices, although customers interested in deploying the whole Valid Secure System Authentication (VSSA) solution will need to contact Valid.
VSSA enables iSeries shops to authenticate users using fingerprint scans, which are captured using standard, low-cost fingerprint scanners. Biometric authentication and thin clients work well together, says Greg Faust, president of Valid Tech. "The solution is highly competitive on initial cost and has a total cost of ownership far below that of deploying traditional PC clients and user authentication solutions based on complex passwords or multi-layered solutions," he says.
Pladgeman sees a bright future for biometric authentication. "We're excited about biometric technology as a perfect complement and logical extension to our other productivity and security features such as single sign-on and SSL encryption," he says.
RELATED STORY
Valid Tech Delivers Biometric Authentication Solution for OS/400
|
