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Vista Security Will it Make a Difference?

Vista Security Will it Make a Difference?. By Dan Blum Senior VP, Research Director Burton Group. Security is Part of the Value Proposition. Microsoft Windows Vista has higher quality code and is way ahead of XP

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Vista Security Will it Make a Difference?

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  1. Vista SecurityWill it Make a Difference? By Dan Blum Senior VP, Research Director Burton Group

  2. Security is Part of the Value Proposition • Microsoft Windows Vista has higher quality code and is way ahead of XP • Vista does a much better job of reducing user privilege requirements and resisting attacks • User account control (UAC) • IE7 enhancements • Kernel patch protection • Address Space Layout Randomization • Significant authentication improvements • Better crypto and smartcard support • Card Spaces • Somewhat better at protecting and isolating resources • Full volume encryption • Service hardening • Device driver signing • Better group policy

  3. Strategic Considerations • Vista will tie in with Longhorn server’s security infrastructure capabilities • Network Access Protection (NAP) health certificates, quarantine and remediation • Network independent policy controls within a domain • Big bet on IPSec: Authentication plus end to end policy controls configured in Active Directory • Identity management initiatives - improved smartcard, PKI and federation support • TPM hardware root of trust building up to rights management (unfinished work)

  4. But There Are Still Some Issues • Caveats to Vista Security • Too many UAC prompts desensitizes users in some cases • The full benefit of UAC will be realized only when more applications are written without assuming local admin • Still have to buy anti-virus from third party vendors, or from Microsoft • Existing security tools may not work with Vista until vendors have time to develop new releases • Vista will still get hacked, applications can still create vulnerabilities, and you’ll still have to patch

  5. More Issues • Migration challenges • Aero GUI resource demands (hardware compatibility) • Application compatibility • Security and management infrastructure compatibility • Interoperability of NAP infrastructure • Key management

  6. Bottom Line • Vista will make a difference • But security is something you do, not something you buy • How you manage Vista, XP, Mac, Linux, Unix, etc. and the applications/content on them is just as important as which one you use • Make Vista migration part of larger security policy and architecture goals • Get the user out of the sysadmin loop • Improve quality of identity management, authentication and application security • Tighten control over sensitive content and ways in which it is used and accessed • Consider migration, support early adopter communities, and prepare aggressively - the promise is there

  7. www.burtongroup.com

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