Another Way to Secure Operating Systems

While it won't help government employees if they still go off and leave their laptop behind, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is doing what it can to protect sensitive data by providing "virtual machine images" of secure configurations of Windows XP and Vista.

These images were mandated by the Office of Management and Budget as the Federal Desktop Core Configuration (FDCC), and created via a collaborative effort among Microsoft, OMB, NIST, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Homeland Security, and are available for download from a Office of Management and Budget web site. The images contain pre-configured security settings for agencies to use when testing and evaluating their applications to ensure they function effectively and securely during migration to these new operating systems.

"This resource facilitates agencies' efforts to implement common security configurations which will boost government's information security, improve system performance and decrease operating costs," said Karen Evans, administrator of OMB's Office of E-Government and Information Technology. Okay.

The documents on which the Federal Desktop Core Configurationis based are two OMB memoranda: Implementation of Commonly Accepted Security Configurations for Windows Operating Systems and Ensuring New Acquisitions Include Common Security Configurations.

-- Jonathan Erickson

Posted by Jon Erickson at 05:10 PM  Permalink