Customer Reviews

Windows Vista Security: Securing Vista Against Malicious Attacks

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Show me someone complaining about User Account Control, and I'll either show you

a. a person setting up the system initially or
b. a person who's not using Vista on a regular basis.

I play a game where I see how often I get the UAC prompt. There's many a week I get none at all.

What UAC points out is how little we know and understand about rights and permissions on our system. What this book points out is why we need and should want UAC on. Turn it off and Internet Explorer protected mode gets disabled.

Read this book. It will want you to install Vista that much more. It gave me a better understanding of the process going on with User account control. It gave me an understanding of how Administrator wasn't the horrifically bad thing it was in XP. About the security processes under the hood. The information in this book was invaluable to me in understanding more about the technologies under the hood.



(Full disclosure I read chapters of this book before it was published)

A few years ago, Oracle had the audacity to run a marketing campaign claiming that their database product was "unbreakable". It didn't take long for someone to break it, and for Oracle to back-pedal their marketing stance and claim that they didn't mean it was 100% impervious, just that security was stronger and they had an "unbreakable" mindset, or something to that effect.

Since the introduction of Windows Vista, it has been hailed by Microsoft and by most media outlets as the "most secure" Windows operating system yet. Microsoft critics have been quick to jump up and down every time a weakness or vulnerability has been discovered- emphatically pointing out that it is, in fact flawed. They fail to realize that there is a big difference between "most secure" and "unbreakable", and that nobody ever claimed it was perfect.

With Vista, Microsoft took tremendous strides on the security front and introduced a variety of new features and technologies. UAC (User Account Control) has been widely criticized, mostly by Microsoft's competition and those who don't really understand its purpose or how to use it. Microsoft also included hard drive encryption with Bitlocker, the new and improved Internet Explorer 7, and more. There is a learning curve to understand these new components and use them properly.

Grimes and Johansson provide the knowledge and details you need to know to understand these new security features. They walk you through how to configure them to protect your Windows system. They also understand that the user is the key to security, and they take a holistic approach in trying to educate the reader on sound security practices that complement the security technology in Vista.

The book is a little "rah rah" Microsoft in spots, but that doesn't take anything away from its exceptional value. Pick this book up and put it to use.

Attacks,attacks,attacks. Yes we the computer world are constantly being attacked. And think of it; we install the best firewall,virus,and antispyware protection and forget about what is actually going on in the hackers world. Yes let my computer protection worry about it.That's what we all say. " Wrong ", There are a few who go beyoned their computers protection. And you must become one of the few. Start by reading and researching " Windows Vista Security ". Knowledge of security is what's going to protect your online activities. Yes knowledge combine with your computers security center is what's going to protect your precious files. The book will enlight you to paths you never knew exsisted. So what are you waiting for join the few who have taken a stand against this malicious attacks.

JQJR

I can't recommend this for a beginner or an advanced security expert. The useful information in this book is hard to find amongst the poor writing and condescending tone.

The information that is here is hard to find. For example, the eight-point list of Vista security essentials includes "Remove unnecessary software and services." Neither the index nor the table of contents provides much guidance on how to find the information on removing services or identifying which are necessary. (I still haven't found that information in the book).

There are random bold-faced notes throughout the book. I haven't figured out the algorithm that the authors used to elevate a paragraph to bold face.

There is repetitive cheerleading for Windows Vista and Internet Explorer. In the words of Joe Friday: "Just the facts, ma'am."

When I got this book, I was amazed at how long and detailed it was. 582 pages for an operating system that was supposed to be more secure than its predecessor, Windows XP? The book reads like part pep rally, part how-to on securing Vista. I reached back into my library for a book entitled "Windows XP Security" by Chris Weber and Gary Bahadur. It was only 416 pages yet got its point across equally as good regarding best practices on securing windows. One of the author's prior books "Protect Your Windows Network" was also much superior to this one in its content.

For me, the kicker on looking at alternatives to Vista was the crippled video functionality that prevents users from viewing High Definition videos in High Definition, even those you record yourself (i.e. home movies). Having to choose between six versions, each of them crippled in some way is also confusing. The security features (like bitlocker) are not common across all versions. While enterprises will most likely deploy Vista Enterprise Edition, it would have been helpful to the reader to provide a summary of the different versions and their security features, and which ones would be most appropriate for home use, business use or home/business use. I mention Bitlocker because Full Disk Encryption is quite the "du jour" thing to do these days, yet Enterprise and Ultimate are the only versions which support this feature. Scant mention of BitLocker in this book, one of its major shortcomings. But you get a whole chapter on User Account Control, which the authors are enamored of but users and sys admins may just disable entirely due to it being such a huge pain in the rear-end.

I gave this book 3 stars because I thought it was well written, and those system administrators who have the unfortunate happenstance of deploying Vista in their enterprise will find some of its content helpful. Whether it is the 50 pages or so needed to help you secure Internet Explorer 7, the number of monthly patches (and subsequent reboots) needed to maintain Vista's security, or the multiple "Cancel or Allow" decisions needed to install applications like Adobe Acrobat perhaps might give you the strength of will to recommend alternatives like Apple OS X. Or just stick with Windows XP.