Windows Vista Security For Dummies®

Table of contents

1. Copyright
2. About the Author
3. Dedication
4. Author's Acknowledgments
5. Introduction
   1. About This Book
   2. Conventions Used in This Book
   3. What You're Not to Read
   4. Foolish Assumptions
   5. How This Book Is Organized
      1. Part I: Vista Security Essentials
      2. Part II: Controlling Access to Systems and Data
      3. Part III: Preserving and Protecting Data
      4. Part IV: Guarding against Threats to Network Security
      5. Part VI: The Part of Tens
   6. Icons Used in This Book
   7. Where to Go from Here
6. I. Vista Security Essentials
   1. 1. Getting Up to Speed on Vista Security
      1. Seeing What's New in Vista Security
         1. The Vista User Account Control
         2. Windows Defender
         3. Parental Controls
         4. Wireless security enhancements
         5. Service hardening
         6. Internet Explorer 7
         7. Encryption with EFS and BitLocker
         8. Windows Security Center enhancements
         9. Windows Firewall enhancements
      2. Knowing What to Secure
         1. Hardware and software
         2. Personally Identifiable Information (PII)
         3. Sensitive information from work
         4. Other information that can be used adversely
      3. Filling Up Your Security Toolbox
         1. Understanding your requirements
         2. Arming yourself with technical tools
      4. Integrating Common Sense and Security
   2. 2. Setting Up Your Security Plan
      1. Understanding the Risk
      2. Assessing Your Systems' Security Risks
         1. Understand your system
         2. Identify threats
         3. Identify system vulnerability
         4. Identify what you have in place (Or can put in place)
         5. Assess the chance of a security breach
         6. Know the true effect
         7. Determine the risk
         8. Taking action to reduce risk
      3. Understanding Your System
         1. Hardware and software
         2. Interfaces
         3. System usage and what type of information is on it
      4. Identifying Threats
      5. Vulnerability Identification
      6. What Safeguards Do You Currently Have in Place?
      7. Telling the Future: What Are the Chances of That Happening?
      8. Understanding the Real Impact
      9. Determining the Risk
      10. Establishing Your Security Plan
          1. Taking action to reduce the risks
          2. A little about how users introduce security risks
   3. 3. Dispensing Security from Windows Security Center
      1. Windows Security Center Essentials
      2. Managing Firewall Settings
         1. Monitoring, alerting, and remediation
         2. Using WSC Options menu to manage Firewall
      3. Configuring Automatic Updating
         1. Monitoring, alerting, and remediation
         2. Managing Automatic Updating
      4. WSC Malware Protection
         1. Monitoring, alerting, and remediation
         2. Virus Protection options
         3. Windows Defender options
      5. Accessing Other Security Options with WSC
         1. Internet Security Settings
         2. User Account Control
         3. Other things to know
            1. Get the latest security and virus information from Microsoft
            2. Changing how WSC alerts you
7. II. Controlling Access to Systems and Data
   1. 4. Administering User Account Control
      1. Understanding Life As a Standard User
         1. Knowing what you can't do
         2. Admin Approval mode: When Standard User mode isn't enough
         3. Over‐the‐Shoulder Credentials
         4. Evaluating a user's need for access
      2. Managing UAC with Local Security Policy Settings
         1. Admin Approval Mode for Built‐in Administrators
         2. Behavior of the Elevation Prompt for Administrators in Admin Approval Mode
         3. Behavior of the Elevation Prompt for Standard Users
         4. Detect Application Installations and Prompt for Elevation
         5. Only Elevate Executables That Are Signed and Validated
         6. Only Elevate UIAccess Applications That Are Installed in Secure Locations
         7. Run All Administrators in Admin Approval Mode
         8. Switch to the Secure Desktop When Prompting for Elevation
         9. Virtualize File and Registry Write Failures to Per‐User Locations
   2. 5. Protecting Your Data with Rights Management Service
      1. What Is RMS?
         1. Why you might need to use RMS
         2. How RMS client integrates your machine
         3. RMS management features
      2. Microsoft Office Information Rights Management (IRM) Capabilities
         1. IRM and Outlook
         2. IRM and documents
         3. Rights Management add‐on for Internet Explorer
      3. Digital Rights Management (DRM) versus RMS
      4. Drawbacks to RMS
   3. 6. Managing Accounts, Groups, and Shares
      1. The Vista Identity Model
      2. Managing Accounts and Groups within Vista
      3. Vista Built‐in Accounts and Groups
         1. Administrator
         2. Administrators
         3. ANONYMOUS LOGON
         4. Authenticated Users
         5. Backup Operators
         6. BATCH
         7. Event Log Readers
         8. Everyone
         9. Guest
         10. IIS_IUSRS
         11. INTERACTIVE
         12. IUSR
         13. LOCAL SERVICE
         14. NETWORK
         15. Network Configuration Operators
         16. NETWORK SERVICE
         17. Performance Log Users
         18. Performance Monitor Users
         19. SERVICE
         20. SYSTEM
         21. Users
      4. Creating and Disabling User Accounts
         1. Creating a user account and password
         2. Disabling/re‐enabling a user account
      5. Using the Select Objects Interface
      6. Creating Groups and Assigning Users
      7. The Vista Access Control Model
         1. System security settings
         2. Object‐level security
      8. Allowing Access to Data through Sharing
         1. File sharing
         2. Using a wizard to manage file sharing
         3. Public folder sharing
         4. Password‐protected sharing
         5. File or printer sharing and firewalls
   4. 7. Advanced Techniques for Managing Access
      1. Managing Object‐Level Security
         1. Effective permissions
         2. Inherited versus explicit security
      2. Protecting the File System through NTFS Permissions
      3. Understanding How to Lock Down the Registry
         1. Using Regedit to view and modify the registry
         2. Registry keys to pay attention to
      4. Keeping an Eye on Your System
         1. Auditing and logging policies
         2. Defining object auditing
            1. NTFS object auditing
            2. Registry object auditing
            3. Service object auditing
8. III. Preserving and Protecting Data
   1. 8. Backing Up So You Can Always Restore
      1. Why Should I Back Up My Data?
      2. Choosing Your Vista Backup Options
         1. Vista system restore point
         2. Backing up files and folders
         3. CompletePC Backup
         4. Shadow Copy
         5. Supported devices
      3. Identifying Your Requirements
      4. Putting Your Requirements to Paper
      5. Planning Your Backup and Recovery Strategy
      6. Preserving Your System
         1. Creating a restore point
         2. Restoring your system to a previous system state
      7. Organizing Your Data So It's Easy to Back Up
      8. Backing Up with Backup and Restore
         1. Backing up files with the Backup Files Wizard
         2. Restoring files and folders
      9. Backing Up with CompletePC Backup
         1. Restoring a CompletePC Backup
         2. A little about shadow copying
   2. 9. Planning and Implementing Encrypting File System
      1. Encryption 101
         1. Symmetric encryption
         2. Asymmetric encryption
      2. Protecting Your Files and Folders with EFS
         1. How Encrypting File System works
         2. Encrypting folders
         3. Encrypting a specific file
         4. Sharing encrypted files
         5. Data recovery
            1. Recovering files
            2. Recovering folders
         6. Developing a file and folder encryption strategy
            1. User education
            2. Understanding what files to encrypt
            3. Organizing your data
            4. Backing up your encryption keys
            5. A word about roaming profiles
   3. 10. Avoiding Data Theft with BitLocker
      1. Keeping Data Safe with BitLocker
      2. BitLocker Requirements
      3. Preparing Your System for BitLocker
         1. Preparing a disk with no installed OS
         2. Preparing a disk with an operating system installed on it
      4. Setting Up BitLocker
         1. Enabling BitLocker with basic options
         2. Enabling BitLocker with advanced options
         3. Enabling BitLocker on a system without a TPM chip
         4. Adding additional authentication with TPM plus a PIN or a TPM startup key
            1. Configuring TPM plus PIN
            2. Configuring TPM with startup key
      5. Configuring Additional Security
         1. Encryption methods
         2. Prevent memory overwrite
         3. Recovering BitLocker‐protected data
         4. Recovery folder options
         5. Configuring recovery options
         6. Performing a recovery
      6. Turning Off BitLocker
      7. Knowing What BitLocker Can't Protect
9. IV. Guarding against Threats to Network Security
   1. 11. Configuring Your Firewall
      1. Using the Windows Firewall Applet
         1. General tab
         2. Exceptions tab
         3. Advanced tab
      2. Using Windows Firewall with Advanced Security Applet
         1. Using the Getting Started Section to configure Firewall
            1. The Authenticate Communications between Computers section
            2. The View and Create Firewall Rules section
            3. The Monitoring section
         2. Using the Resources pane
      3. What Do I Do Now?
      4. Other Firewalls
   2. 12. Locking Down Wireless
      1. Wireless Network Basic Training
      2. What's New for Wireless Security in Vista
      3. Configuring Wireless Security in Vista
         1. Connecting to a network
         2. A few words about unsecure networks
         3. Accessing wireless hotspots or other unsecure wireless networks
         4. Restricting use to specific wireless networks
         5. Network and Sharing Center
         6. Modifying your network connection
         7. Configuring static IP addresses
         8. Setting up an ad hoc (peer‐to‐peer) wireless network
      4. Securing Your Wireless Router or Access Point
         1. Change your administrative username and password
         2. Change your service set identifier (SSID)
         3. Enabling secure communication
         4. Consider disabling DHCP
         5. MAC address filtering
         6. Disabling SSID broadcasts
         7. Know your network's range and limit it if needed
   3. 13. Implementing IE7 Security Features to Limit Your Exposure
      1. Configuring IE7 Internet Protected Mode Options
      2. Working Safely with ActiveX
      3. Protecting against Cross‐Domain Scripting Attacks
      4. Configuring Phishing Filters
      5. Setting Binary Behavior Restrictions
      6. Understanding Local Machine Zone Restrictions
         1. Adding more security with MIME safety and MK protocol restriction settings
         2. Locking down network protocols to prevent exposures
         3. Controlling object caching
         4. Controlling automatic downloads and scripts
      7. Bringing It All Together
   4. 14. Avoiding Invasion (By Malware, Spyware, Viruses, and the Other Usual Suspects)
      1. The 411 on Unsanctioned Software
      2. Reducing Spyware, Malware, and More with Windows Defender
      3. What's New
      4. Defending Your System
         1. Getting to know the Windows Defender interface
         2. Updating Windows Defender definition files
         3. Real‐time protection
         4. Invoking on‐demand scans
            1. Quick scan
            2. Full scan
            3. Custom scan
         5. Responding to threats
            1. Automatically scan my computer (scheduled scan)
            2. Knowing what alerts really mean
            3. Setting your threat levels
         6. Putting Defender's tools to work
            1. Quarantined items
            2. Using Allowed Items
            3. Software Explorer
            4. Windows Defender Web site
         7. Lending a helping hand in classifying spyware
         8. Other ways to protect against spyware, viruses, and other malicious software
            1. Implementing user best practices
            2. Third‐party software
10. V. Establishing Advanced Security Practices
    1. 15. Restricting the Use of Removable Media (And More)
       1. Removable Media and Associated Security Risks
          1. Risks of attaching media
          2. Risks of detaching media
       2. Protecting Yourself Against the Risks of Removable Media
          1. Protecting against viruses and malware
          2. Protection against removal of data from your machine
          3. Protection of data on removable devices
       3. Using Device Control to Protect Data on the Move
          1. Implementing Device Control installation settings
          2. Implementing Device Control usage settings
          3. Controlling device installation
          4. Controlling device usage
    2. 16. Working with Vista Security Policies
       1. Implementing the Right Security Settings for You
          1. Why you should use policy to manage security settings
          2. Managing policy with the Group Policy Object Editor
       2. Protecting Your System with Local Security Policy Settings
          1. Password policies
          2. Account‐lockout policies
          3. Audit policies
          4. User rights assignment
          5. Security options
          6. Event log
       3. Diving Deeper into Security Policy Settings
          1. Computer configuration policy settings
          2. User‐configuration policy settings
          3. Administrative templates
       4. Managing Policy by Using Security Templates
          1. Creating your own custom security template
          2. Windows Vista Security Guide templates
          3. Applying a security template to your machine
11. VI. The Part of Tens
    1. 17. Nine Security Risks and How to Thwart Them
       1. Always Being Connected
       2. Taking Shortcuts with Security
       3. Failing to Apply Software Patches
       4. Unwillingly Participating in Attacks
       5. Getting Careless with E‐Mail Security
       6. Mobile Code
       7. Peer‐to‐Peer Networking
       8. Unsafe Instant Messaging
       9. Mobile Device Security
    2. 18. Ten Additional Security Tools and Resources You Shouldn't Compute Without
       1. Antivirus Software
       2. Spyware Removal Tools
       3. Third‐Party Backup Software
       4. Firewalls and other Network Protection
       5. Online Security Newsletters
       6. The About.com Identity‐Theft Web Site
       7. Microsoft Security Baseline Analyzer
       8. Vista Security Sidebar Gadgets
       9. Systinternals Tools
       10. Secure File‐Deletion Software
    3. A. Glossary
    4. B. Getting to Know Vista Versions (And Related Security Features)
       1. Vista Home Basic
       2. Vista Home Premium
       3. Vista Business
       4. Vista Ultimate
       5. Vista Enterprise
       6. Comparing Versions of Vista