Microsoft Corp. released a guide on April 25 to help systems administrators run Windows Server 2003 securely and reannounced a similar guide for Windows 2000 yesterday.
The Windows Server 2003 Security Guide and the Windows 2000 Security Hardening Guide for Windows 2000 Professional and Server editions give instructions on how to set up the software and how to mitigate various attack types, as well as other tips, said Michael Stephenson, lead product manager for Windows Server at Microsoft.

"We felt we needed to do a better job in helping our customers to better secure their products," he said.

Microsoft found that an overwhelming majority of the security breaches its customers have suffered resulted from configuration mistakes. These included unpatched systems and unprotected administrative accounts on servers, Stephenson said.

The guides walk administrators through the best practices for setting up a Windows Server system in a variety of configuration scenarios, including file server, Web server, domain controller and Domain Name System server, Stephenson said.

Users can also learn how to reduce the impact of various attack types and how to harden systems against those types of attacks. The guides provide details on countermeasures users can take to make their systems less susceptible. For example, access to the shutdown function on a domain controller should be very limited.

Previously, Microsoft had released security white papers addressing specific security issues such as password management. This is the first time the company has published comprehensive guides, according to Stephenson. The Windows 2000 Security Hardening Guide was first released just last month. The guides are part of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing initiative, he said.

The next thing Microsoft will do is to automate security setup. In mid-2003, Microsoft plans to launch a security configuration wizard for Windows Server 2003 that will ask customers about their environment and, based on the answers, set the configuration settings, Stephenson said.

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