Investigator 1.2.2 - Feb/Mar '99

Investigator 1.2.2

With the emergence of the automated law firm, the issue of security has come to the forefront. Law firms and their clients are becoming increasingly concerned about outsiders and staff members gaining unauthorized access to the firm's computer network. Many products have emerged to help firms assess their security issues. These applications usually fall into two areas: assessing threats from outside the law firm (or "Where are the holes in my network?") and from inside the law firm (or "What are my staff members doing on their workstations?").

Investigator from the WinWhatWhere Corporation fits into the latter category. This application gives a law firm the ability to check up on its staff members by keeping track of all the activities that a user completes on their workstation each day. It can track keystrokes (including the content of e-mail letters), program executables and even Web pages. I have both major browsers on my laptop and it tracked all of the pages that I visited.

Installation is fairly simple and can be installed on a network without the knowledge of users. If you install it on a workstation, the application has a stealth mode to remove any trace from that workstation. Once the product is installed, it automatically begins tracking all workstation activities.

Investigator's reports are fairly customizabl, and can be configured to run with 10 different column headings and be scheduled to run at any time during the day or week.

Overall, this is a nice program, but a bit limited. It only notifies the system administrator of staff workstation activities on a day-to-day basis. If your network has a connection to the Internet, there are other applications available that will protect your system from external threats in addition to tracking internal computer usage.

WinWhatWhere Corp.
(888) 239-5396
www.winwhatwhere.com
Windows

$99 (single user),
$495 (10 users)

Reviewed by Adam Nelson, attorney and
consultant, Baker, Robbins & Co., Chicago, Ill.

Feb/Mar '99 Issue

PROS
Easy to set up and use.

CONS
Doesn't cover external issues

VERDICT
Effective for its limited scope.