Playing with Cyber Hawk

Well, even if it is not that common, we'll look into it. I'll pass it on to QA and they'll try to reproduce the problem. Make sure you have the latest version as well.

Ok, I'll review the installer as well. This software seems to be more of a policy decision.


Kurt

 

Thanks. I do have latest version.

 

Thank you for your reply.

It does concern me that you have to use IE to run CyberHawk, but I am not sure if this for the installation or whether it is to run it also. Since I have IE locked down I am not sure it CH will then run. For the time being I am not attempting to install this app.

 

Hi dgj05--

Thank you for your concerns.

To further explain, we technically don't need "IE" installed and we don't actually use it. We only need the web browser control piece that IE also uses. Currently Microsoft does not make that control available on its own and they only ship it bundled with IE. Depending on how you're actually "locking down" IE you may still be able to access the browser control. If you contact our technicians at http://www.novatix.com/support and explain how you're locking things down, then they could possibly test this to see if you can still access the web control and thus also CH.

If you're using Windows at all, then you may find it difficult to avoid using this control. For instance, here are a few other examples of programs that use that control:
--Microsoft Outlook
--Windows Help system (and just about any other Help system)
--the XP System Restore Wizard
--Windows Media Player
--any Wise for Windows installers
and on and on.

We are also investigating alternatives to using that control, but so far we've only found much more complicated solutions.

Becky

(updated to show the list of other apps making use of this control)

 

I have uninstalled Cyberhawk for a while.

This is the combination of reasons;

- New OP 4.0 seems to have a pretty deep control on the behaviour of different apps. Maybe I dont need CH with OP4?

- Read on OP forum some problem with CH and one of the RCOP4.0 - will investigate that later.
CH support - have you heard anything about conflicts with OP4?

- When I uninstalled Outpost 3.51 CH didnt know Outpost ( I am the only one in the community using OP and the first to uninstall it?) so it asked a question. There was some time before I answered and maybe that disturbed OPs uninstall cause I had some problems after that. I dont know if CH had anything to do with those problems - installing new OP the OP installation said that (old) OP was running on my machine when it was not. CH was uninstalled when new OP was installed. Just mention this if it is of interest to CH developers.

- The question of what CH sends home to the CH community input analyzers is still a bit blurred to me. Do they get hold of keystrokes so that they could if they would - see my passwords? If its possible - then its up the honesty of the personal at CH and that might not be good enough for me allthough I am certain they are as honest as I am. Not meant to be offensive at all.

I will be looking out for CH development, but right now I will take a pause.

Best Regards

 

Hi Rivalen--
We have tested Outpost Pro v. 4 in our labs and as far as we can tell we do not see any conflicts. You would need to initially allow Cyberhawk in Outpost, but after that you shouldn't see any trouble. We don't see any alerts when installing the latest version of OP, so perhaps it was just an issue of uninstalling the earlier version? The trouble with OP saying an older version was still running is more an OP issue--this does not really involve CH.

As I stated earlier, Cyberhawk does NOT record actual keystrokes. In order to prevent other programs from doing so and to protect you from actual keylogging programs, we only need to know when a key was pressed. Cyberhawk does not remember which keys were pressed. It is not necessary for our analysis to know which key was pressed, only that one was. We certainly do not store or transmit any information about your keyboard use.

Since Cyberhawk is a relatively new program we understand that it will take time to gain widespread acceptance and for some folks to become fully comfortable with it. We anticipate much upcoming press coverage, so hopefully that will help in legitimizing the program and company for those who still have concerns. We try to respond as best as we can to concerns raised, but on some issues there may be limits to what information we can provide, especially regarding specific technical processes (due to a number of reasons--pending patent applications, competitive reasons, etc.). If you're uncomfortable with this, then we understand you may wish to wait until more outside sources have validated Cyberhawk.

Although Novatix in its current form is a relatively new company, if you take a look at our management team you'll see we have years and years of high-quality, trustworthy software development behind us. http://www.novatix.com/Company/Management.aspx

Becky Dubrow

 

Hi Becky!

When hearing that you tested with OP4 without problems thats good news.

I have read your explanations again about what participation in the community will send home to you and what it will definitly NOT send home - thanks, I needed that totally clearifying statement you last made.

I have been interested in CH since I first heard of it on this forum and I am still very interested and will not be surprised if its back on my PC after the next one or two upgrades.

All your comprehensive and informative answers on this forum makes the brand name Cyberhawk stronger. I have used your support tickets in the past and was pleased with speed and friendly informative answers.

Looking forward to a supportforum.

Thank you!

 

CH & System Safety Monitor make good teammates.

For instance...

IF I am correct in interpreting SSM's rather convoluted procedures, and IF CH's key-press monitoring actions concern you, THEN you can (if you wish) tell SSM to block CH from doing that. See screenshot below.

 

Hi Becky! I wish that you would indicate in the product update page of your site the complete version number of the available update. Also it should be indicated in the main interface of Cyberhawk. I am using the updated version but it only says Version 1.2.0.

Thank You.

 

Hi juckjones--
Thank you for the suggestion. We actually used to list the full version number, so I'm not sure why that's not happening any longer. I'll check on that, but in the meantime you can view the full version number by going to the Cyberhawk Help menu--About Cyberhawk.

Becky

 

Thank you Becky

I am using 2k and do not use Outlook or IE. Tried installing IE 6 but it made such a mess of my system that I wound back to having 5 again. I will wait until such time you may find an alternative to use.

 

I realize that CH's use of built-in IE capabilities might save CH some programming steps. In my opinion, however, it is tantamount to using a thin bamboo stalk as a crutch to lean on.

 

Glad you agree with that. Sometimes I feel I am getting over paranoid but I do not trust that bag of nails.

 

I also have to applaud seeing a Cyberhawk Support spokesperson to fill in some of the blanks and answer ques?

Early on when CyberHawk first appeared i installed it to test alongside System Safety Monitor! and immediately was intrigued as well as impressed by it's rapid interception actions it was able to perform on the end-users behalf. It continued to prove to perform to my own expectations enough to publicly suggest some endoresment of it on other forums. After some time away this summer i returned to discover some changes made (Improvement, Development) or frustrations as encountered a few similar issues as others reported.

Overall i been still impressed and now encouraged as other i'm sure, that Novatix is finally stepped up and out of the studio to offer us a chance at "Live" discussion exchanges via Cyberhawk Support personnel right here at Wilder's.

Thanks and looking forward to implimenting this soft again soon.

 

Since I have nothing important to hide in my PC, decided to install Cyberhawk.
It needed no configuration, just to install and that was it.

Memory consumption is about 19 MB currently, so quite a lot considering kerio 2.1.5 + SSM free take 17 MB currently together. But not so important really.
It looks fairly light on CPU. Takes 0 .. 10% CPU when browser loads some web page with lots of graphics, ads etc. (amd athlon 2400 MHz, 512 MB)

Seems to work along with SSM okay, time will tell if conflicts. SnoopFree is temporarily uninstalled from my system. 2 HIPS's should be enough to test about possible conflicts.

What is this? When starting IE, SSM informs me that CHService.exe wants to suspend eplorer.exe
I allow it to suspend it and then IE starts.

 

Upon reading about Novatix' plans for Cyberhawk, I decided to give it another go. This version (1.2.0.39) is running very well, noticeably smoother than prior versions. Resource use is no issue. I decided to embark upon some "risky" (don't ask ) activities, Cyberhawk did its thing as advertised. It stays.