Windows Security Baseline
August 27th, 2009 by ComputerBob
Regular readers of this Journal know that I’ve been happily using LInux instead of Windows since July of 2006. Linux is fast, secure, stable, easy to use, and infinitely configurable. Like most Linux “distros,” the Debian Linux that I use is completely free and comes with hundreds of free applications, tools, utilities, libraries, etc., as well as free access to online repositories that contain about 20,000 more.
I’ve often said that I have no interest in playing computer games. I get that same feeling of challenge and reward by getting my computer working exactly the way I want it to work, set up exactly the way I like it to be, completely secured from any attacks, and completely backed-up in case I mess up anything.
And when I’ve accomplished that goal, I feel like I’ve “won the game.”
I’ve felt like that for the past 3 years that I’ve been using Linux instead of Windows. And I spend virtually no time at all working on my Linux computer’s security.
Having used computers since before MS-DOS was released, and having used Windows since its very first release, as both a user and as a Windows support person, I know that Windows users have to do a lot more work than Linux users before they can ever feel like they’ve “won the game.” And, for Windows users, the game never ends — they’re always going to have to “keep playing” in order to try to keep patching their systems’ thousands of security vulnerabilities.
The Windows Secrets newsletter says, “It sometimes seems like we spend more time protecting our PCs than actually using them. Sadly, in the modern computer age our systems are under continuous attack. Even worse, those attacks take ever-new approaches to break into our PCs and steal our personal data.”
That’s why Windows Secrets provides a Windows Security Baseline of hardware and software recommendations, to help Windows users try to “win the game.”
Windows users, I wish you well. The odds are stacked against you.
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Tags:
Consumer Info, Debian, Hardware, Linux, Security, Software, Tech Support, Windows