User guide

User Guide Siemens ID Mouse Professional V 4.0
July 2001 Edition Adminstration
Page 29
6 Administration
6.1 Providing Additional Security for the Computer via BIOS Settings
Apart from the steps performed to secure the computer after the installation, the administrator
should also make use of the security settings available in the BIOS of modern PCs. Almost all
modern PCs include options to prevent the computer from being started with a floppy disk or
to change the startup sequence so that the computer boots first from the hard disk.
For more details on how to enable these features in the BIOS, please refer to the manual of
your PC or motherboard.
Note that a BIOS password that is only known to the administrator must also be assigned
when using this function; otherwise, experienced users could change the startup sequence in
the BIOS and thus break into the PC with a startup or emergency diskette.
Attention
The administrator should make sure that he or she never forgets the password, since BIOS
passwords can often only be removed by the hardware manufacturer.
6.2 Securing the PC by Deactivating the Boot Function in "Secure Mode"
To provide additional security against unauthorized access to the system, you can deactivate
the boot function in "secure mode".
This entry is automatically generated for Windows 98. Under Windows ME, this entry must be
entered manually as described below. Please make note of the warning.
Add the entry BootKeys = 0 to the [Options] section of the file MSDOS.SYS, which is located
in the root directory of your system.
Warning:
Adding this entry may cause the PC to hang itself when it is booted.
You should therefore create a start diskette before you add this entry so that you can remove
the entry again if you have problems.
6.3 Securing the Computer via the User Manager
The Siemens ID Mouse Professional User Manager provides additional options to prevent
unauthorized access to the computer. These include:
- Enabling logons only via fingerprints:
The administrator can set the system to allow only a fingerprint identification when
starting up the computer or terminating the screen saver. This disables the tab on
which the user ID and password can be specified.
- Automatic shutdown of the PC when a logon error occurs
If the application returns an error on performing the identification, the computer is
automatically shut down.
- Setting the security level to “High”
The security level for the identification can be set to “High”.
- Minimum password length
If it is not possible to do without the option of logging on with a user ID and password,
the minimum length for passwords should be set to at least 8 characters.