ZoneAlarm ForceField: A Virtual Stunt Double to the Security Rescue Now Entering a Zone of Safety Adam Stone
Now Entering a Zone of Safety
ZoneAlarm ForceField's "bubble of protection" is a key metaphor: it's a zone of safety surrounding your browser. Evildoers will bounce off or get trapped inside this short-lived virtual space. From inside, meanwhile, the user can continue to interact with the internet in a free and open two-way environment.
ZAFF is a slim app. We had it installed and running in our test environment in less than two minutes. (The manufacturer claims 30 seconds. Either way, no complaints.) It did seem to slow our browsing slightly, but not enough to annoy.
The app kicks in when a user clicks "Open Browser" from an icon in the system tray. A browser window opens (we used Firefox) that looks a bit different than usual, as ZAFF adds a four-button toolbar at the top of the screen with the following buttons: User options, Protection Activity, Site Status, and Private Browser (more on this option in a moment).
Once launched, the app is largely passive until it encounters problematic files or activities, at which point the user may be prompted to keep or delete files, for example.
Now, about the "Private Browser" button. This handy item reflects one of ZAFF's main strengths. That is, its portability.
With its small footprint and quick install, a user at a public terminal can grab and install it in no time. With that done, a click in the system tray icon will launch a "private" browser session. A browser window pops up, with the ZAFF menu bar colored blue to confirm that you are in private mode.
Nothing from this private session will be recorded or saved. Type. Surf. Every trace of your online presence will disappear when you close the browser. Private browsing mode automatically wipes out cookies, history, cache, saved forms, and passwords
Of course this is a beta release we're talking about, and no beta is bug free. Fortunately, the programmers have been putting together a list of known issues and work-arounds. The bad news is that it's still a pretty big list and includes important issues such as:
Anti-phishing heuristics may display some false positive findings
In Web email, ForceField may block very large file attachments
Anti-phishing heuristics may slow browsing at some sites
Settings changed while browsing will disappear when you clear virtual data, an option in the Settings field.
In some instances, Microsoft Outlook may not launch properly when ForceField is running.
Nothing tragic here, and it's good to know that ZoneAlarm is on top of the situation. We'll be eager to see an official release with the kinks worked out. A retail launch of the product is tentatively scheduled for the first quarter of 2008.
Pros: Creates a virtual surfing shield, bouncing a veritable bounty of badness back into the ether
Cons: Still in beta with plenty of kinks to be worked out, only works on Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista PCs
