Any of you who use PCs every day should be all too familiar with the constant struggle to keep at bay the latest viruses, trojans and all the other pieces of malicious software – collectively known as malware – that attack our workhorses. The daily deluge of updates and security alerts, combined with the overwhelming knowledge that the battle to rid your PC of these threats can never truly be won, is enough to depress even the brightest of us.
Of course, that wasn’t always the case in the past. You used to be fine as long as you protected your computer from unpredictable floppy disks. The real problems came with the arrival of the Internet and since then, attacks on our PCs have just skyrocketed. From the simple “click-me” virus attachments in emails to the most aggressive trojans that sneak their way through an unpatched hole in your operating system, they come at you from all angles to put them all at bay Keep in mind, the list of programs you need to protect everything has also mushroomed.
It’s not uncommon these days to have anti-virus and anti-spyware software, a decent firewall (either hardware or software), spam filters, and a browser that detects phishing websites. Given the already significant storage space and processing power of all these programs, there are probably two ways you’ll see the launch of Trustware’s Bufferzone software. The first is a skeptical mindset that thinks “I already have enough anti-this and the other programs to worry about, why would I want another” or the alternative is to be more positive about it, i.e. ” you can never have enough protection, so give me, give me, give me!’
Before I delve too much into the semantics though, let’s take a look at what Bufferzone actually does, and then we’ll see if it’s worth recommending, regardless of which of the above reactions you had.
First things first, BufferZone is Windows XP only, so you might want to stop reading unless you’ve been doggedly stuck with XP on your home computer, or are in control of one of the majority of corporate networks that still use XP now. However, since you know that a Vista version is in the works – there’s no release schedule yet – you might also want to read on to find out what’s in store for you.
BufferZone then takes a whole new approach to protecting your computer. Rather than using the retroactive method of most antivirus software, which involves manually identifying malicious software and then adding it to the antivirus software’s threat list through an update, BufferZone proactively protects your PC by hiding the actual operating system behind a wall and ensuring that all untrusted software is kept safe on the other side.
This wall of protection is created through a process called virtualization, in which software running on your actual PC creates a software environment that behaves as if it were your actual PC – it creates a virtual PC, or buffer zone. The trick is that the software running in this virtual PC is completely isolated from your actual PC, so if it tries to do something unwanted, it doesn’t actually damage your real PC. All that is required to get rid of the malicious software is to delete the Virtual PC and reboot.
Well, virtualization software has been around for a while and there are many solutions that allow you to run software this way. However, none has ever been as easy to use as this one. Setting up BufferZone is as easy as running an installer and restarting your PC. That’s it, you’re protected.
By default, the BufferZone protects Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, and MSN Messenger, so anything downloaded through these programs stays in this pseudo-quarantine. In addition, any script or hack that exploits security holes in these programs will also be blocked by the virtual PC’s invisible wall.
You can also assign any other program to run in the BufferZone, such as your favorite web browser, peer-to-peer applications, IRC client, and email clients (in the case of email clients, the client itself will not be included in the BufferZone, but any attachments or other saved files are). It is also possible to run all software from other locations – such as CD-ROMs and USB drives – in the BufferZone. So barring a direct attack on your operating system, your computer has the potential to be completely safe.
Best of all, the buffer zone can not only run programs, but entire programs can be installed there. So if you want to test some software that you think is dodgy, you can download and install it (registration keys and all) in BufferZone and see if something bad happens. If everything is ok, just uninstall it from the BufferZone, move the installer to the safe zone and install it again.
The icons and windows of programs, files, and folders in the BufferZone are surrounded by a red line, so you always know whether you are working in a safe or unsafe environment. However, if you find this annoying, you can disable it in the configuration menu.
We started testing the effectiveness of all these protections by downloading and installing programs that our usual virus scanners found infected, and we were happy that our PC remained completely uninfected. Depending on the malware involved, we saw one or the other error message as the virus or trojan obviously fell over trying to cross the BufferZone. But a quick flush of the BufferZone later and we had a completely clean machine again.
We then tried different combinations of running and installing programs inside and outside the BufferZone to see if they worked properly. And in all the programs we tried, none came up short. The only oddity we noticed was that due to the way BufferZone actually stores programs in its virtual machine, links in certain menus, namely the quick launch section at the top of the start menu, could become broken. However, normal shortcuts worked as expected.
Overall, the experience of using BufferZone is simple and largely unobtrusive. Yes, due to the fact that it essentially doubles the workload when running certain programs, it can cause clogging with prolonged use. However, quickly deleting the BufferZone will quickly remedy the situation.
In fact, there are only two reasons why we can think of not recommending this software and neither of them is a technical issue. Rather, it addresses our original question of whether it’s worth adding another string to your guard bow. You see, while BufferZone protects the sensitive parts of your PC from a lot of malicious software running from web browsers or floppy disks, it can’t really prevent a direct attack on your operating system from a remote source. To counter this, you still need to stay up to date with OS patches and make sure you’re using a good hardware or software firewall. If your system gets infected in any other way, BufferZone cannot detect this either, so you still need a regular antivirus to guard against this possibility.
So if you don’t mind having yet another essentially third-party software to protect your PC, then we wholeheartedly recommend TrustWare’s BufferZone Pro – especially since you can try it free for 30 days. However, if all that software is getting a bit overwhelming, we’d advise you to maybe skip this and instead pay attention to where you browse and make sure you scan any software from external sources with your regular antivirus before running it . Oh, and always make backups!
“‘Verdict”‘
TrustWare’s BufferZone is a brilliant new weapon in the ongoing fight to keep your PC free of malicious software. It may not replace any of your existing solutions, but like any good weapon, it plays its part, and it plays it well. And at around £15 for a perpetual single-user license, it’s an absolute bargain.