Security of Windows XP for remote users

[Guest]

Dear colleagues,

We have lots of remote users in our company and they travel a lot within our
branch offices. Imagine, if during these trips their laptops are stolen or
the flight company simply lose them.
Does anyone know about any features of Windows XP that can be implemented to
avoid the use of programs such as Microsoft Key
(http://www.lostpassword.com/windows-xp-2000-nt.htm)?
Microsoft Key is a program to reset Windows 2003 / XP / 2000 / NT security
if Administrator password, secure boot password or key disk is lost.

Looking forward to hear from you.
Katia Schneider

 

[Guest]

If someone can get physical access to the computer, their are many ways to
either bypass a password, or delete it and get access to the data, unless you
encrypt the entire HD

 

[Kerry Brown]

You need to look at encryption of at least the data on the hard drive.
Encryption is not without it's problems. It is very susceptible to data loss
through lost passwords, keys, etc. XP Pro has EFS (Encrypting File System)
built in but it is very complicated to set up and use properly. Use your
favorite search engine to search for encryption software and do some
research before you decide on what to use.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your reply. Can you please let me know how can I encrypt the
entire HD? Do I have to do it folder by folder?
K.

 

[Kerry Brown]

You need 3rd party software to encrypt the whole hard drive. With the built
in encryption, EFS, the key to decrypt is stored in the user profile. If the
profile is encrypted it can't be read.