The NightWatch just came on duty. This guard makes certain everyone signs in whenever they try lo enter — no, not the building — your hard disk. Instead of signing in or out on the log sheet, you “sign-in” at your keyboard with your name and password.
Why bother? You can store about 6,666 pages of text on a 20-megabyte hard disk - just enough pages to fill a two-drawer filing cabinet. Would you leave a filing cabinet of all your memos, letters, outlines, databases, and spreadsheets available for anyone to read? Your personal electronic filing cabinet is just as vulnerable to anyone who knows enough to double-click on a document. A hardware lock on your filing cabinet provides the same security as NightWatch, a software lock for your electronic filing cabinet or hard disk. But it is not foolproof. It does not encrypt your files, partitions, or individual folders, nor does it prevent you from using the Macintosh itself. NightWatch bars unauthorized use or erasure of your hard disk. (If you want the equivalent of locking your files in a safe, you need MacSafe, from Kent Marsh Ltd.) There are three main components to the system: the Administrator application, Shutdown application, and User Disk. The Administrator sets up, manages, and troubleshoots the security system. The Shutdown application locks up and shuts down your hard disk, and the User Disk actually unlocks your hard disk. The User Disk is a normal System startup disk that the Administrator has “authorized" to become a bona fide User Disk. The User Disk also keeps a timed Activity log of who attempted to lock or unlock your hard disk. With NightWatch, you lock up a hard disk just about the way you would a filing cabinet. At night you secure your hard disk by double-clicking on the Shutdown application — like pressing the lock button on a filing cabinet. When you return in the morning, you unlock your hard disk with a “key” disk that requires you to type in your name and password. NightWatch then unlocks the hard disk, ejects the User Disk, and restarts the Macintosh. (There are other versions of NightWatch that accept identification from bar codes and retina scanners). Now your hard disk is open and operates normally. As with a normal key, you can give a spare key disk to a friend. That is, you can create User Disks that are configured for various other users besides yourself. User Disks cannot be copied like normal disks. In fact, even if you move the hard disk to another computer or boot off a floppy, the hard disk isn't recognized.
The Administrator program allows you to assign names and passwords to User Disks. In case you should lose or damage a User Disk, the Administrator program contains a master key to your NightWatch system and can override your locked up hard disk, (The Administrator program itself can also be assigned a password.)
Each major component of the system contains signatures. If any component detects that a signature has been tampered with, the program stops, reports the tampering, and logs it in the activity log file. The Administrator application may be used to report or further diagnose the tampering source. The Administrator program can recover most tampering, but should you have a Code Red Alert — the most severe kind of tampering — Kent Marsh Ltd. will assist in unlocking your hard disk.
I have been using NightWatch for a couple of months with no problems. The latest version includes a Help file; it's a nice addition, though you need it only when installing the software. I find that locking my entire hard disk is very convenient with our E-mail and AppleShare network because now I can configure my computer to automatically log on to these services and not worry about someone else turning on my computer and automatically logging onto all my accounts.
If you are worried about prying eyes or sticky fingers, use the electronic guardian angel — NightWatch. This is the only product I know of that is easy to use and gives me the peace of mind that my data is accessible only to those to whom I've given permission.
Carman, Chip. (September 1988). NightWatch. MacUser. (pgs. 70, 72).
Kent Marsh
Applications
out of 10 (0 vote)
3 / 
2023-01-07 / 
eb8d280acad7dd9a9f1df3f7c0e9432286db742d / 
/ 
TheNightWatch102.hqx
Emulating this? It could probably run under: 
Mini vMac
