Security Strategies in Windows Platforms and Applications, 3rd Edition

Security Baseline Analysis

Baselines help you collect and analyze the data required for auditing needs without collecting a lot of extra data. A baseline defines the settings and data you want to collect for later comparison and trend analysis. The following guidelines will help you identify and create baselines you can use to ensure compliance with your security policy:

• Create initial baselines that represent a secure starting point for each computer. Develop security templates in Security Configuration and Analysis (SCA) that contain the security settings for each type of workstation and server. Change the templates as needed and use them when building new computers. You can apply up-to-date templates to new Windows installations to quickly ...