CHaPTER 1 Microsoft Windows and the Threat Landscape M ICROSOFT WINDOWSisthemostcommonoperatingsystemusedtoday. Morethan90percentofcomputersuseaWindowsoperatingsystem. Microsoftprovidesoperatingsystemsoftwareforawidevariety ofsolutions,includingbothclientandservercomputers.ThelatestWindows releasesforserverenvironmentsprovidethemostadvancedfeaturesofthe Windowsproductline. Thosereleasescontainnewandupdatedsecurityfeatures.Eachyearbrings newanduniquethreatstoviolateasystem'ssecurity.Whetherthegoalis tocrashasystem,accessinformationwithoutauthorization,ordisruptnormal systemoperation,attackersarefi ndingmuchvulnerabilitytoexploit. ItisimportanttounderstandthethreatstoWindowssystemsecurityand thestepstoprotectitfromattackers.Thefi rststeptocreatingandmaintaining asecureenvironmentislearninghowtofi ndandmitigatevulnerabilitiesand howtoprotectyoursystems. Thisbookcoversthetopicsyouwillneedtounderstandtherisks,threats, andvulnerabilitiesassociatedwiththeWindowsoperatingsystems.Then itaddressesthestepsnecessarytoprotectyoursystems.Youwilllearnhow toimplementWindowscontrolstoprotectbothserverandclientcomputers. Andfi nally,youwilllearnhowtomaintainsecuritycontrolstokeepyour Windowscomputerssecure. 2