Hands-On With Small Business Advantage's Features
The first module we configured was Intel's USB Blocker. Prior to launching it, I was worried this would be an unintelligent feature that'd simply disable USB connectivity altogether. I was wrong, though; it contains USB device categories that grant or revoke access to certain types of hardware. Then, even more granularly, you can create exceptions to those rules.
Once the USB Blocker is configured, its status is pushed to the SBA dashboard.
Next up was the Software Monitor, which keeps tabs on running processes to make sure they aren't quietly circumvented by malicious code. I installed McAfee's anti-virus to test the applet's functionality. You typically want some form of virus protection running, so any application that shuts it off is very likely suspect.
After setting up Software Monitor, we can see its status from the same central dashboard.
When Software Monitor detects that a tracked process is deactivated, it takes a few steps to let you know. First, it records the issue in its event log. Second, you're prompted by a notification in the task bar of the app that shut down. Third, the dashboard is refreshed to alert you of a problem.