Microsoft Windows 7 has seen users reporting various security level norms and problems that are undergoing within their operating system. Microsoft has sought out the solution by providing users with free security solutions to Windows 7 users, but then too it was neglected by many revenue companies towards the solution.
According the problem, users always seems to see their security related problems first, in such regard Microsoft team offered Windows Update feature in their Windows 7 operating system which can detect the presence of Windows 7 Antivirus solutions into their operating system. In a survey, it was seen that many had reported with no Windows 7 Antivirus solution uploaded in their system. Therefore, Microsoft sought to offer free Antivirus software to Windows 7 users which is the Microsoft Security Essentials(MSE) software feature. However this brought about a fight in antivirus software sites which started revolting against the announcement of Microsoft to provide free antivirus software at no cost of money.
There were totally many issues raised up in the regard. The Antivirus software companies reported that there is no dependence that users can be with downloading the free Microsoft Security Essentials(MSE) from the feature of Windows 7 updates. It shouldn't be implied as a way of distributing softwares within the operating system as it might get spammed. The companies feel that Microsoft should close up with this feature and allow the Windows 7 Antivirus softwares to come up legally with advanced operating mode to Windows 7 users.
Source mywindowsclub
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
How to use VPN Reconnect
Roaming users generally rely on VPNs (virtual private networks) to provide a secure connection between their computer and the internal company network. You don’t have to know how it works, but it’s the magic technology that convinces IT managers to say yes to working from outside the office.
When you’re sitting in a hotel room, at a customer’s office or in your own study, and you establish a VPN connection, your PC will generally stay logged on without any problems. However, when you’re relying on a Wi-Fi hotspot or mobile broadband dongle to establish a VPN connection while on the move, you may suffer frequent dropped connections and a cumbersome process for re-authenticating and re-establishing the VPN connection each time.
The VPN Reconnect feature allows Windows 7 to automatically re-establish active VPN connections after Internet connectivity is interrupted. As soon as Windows 7 reconnects to the internet, it will also reconnect to the VPN.
Inevitably, the VPN will still be unavailable as long as the internet connection is down, and the process of reconnecting will take a few seconds after access becomes available again, but VPN Reconnect at least ensures that your network resources will pop back up as soon as possible, without you having to fiddle around with anything.
We promised you some technical details, so: VPN Reconnect is basically an IPsec tunnel using the IKEv2 (Internet Key Exchange) protocol for key negotiation and for transmission of ESP (Encapsulating Security Payload) packets. ESP is part of the industry standard IPsec security architecture, which provides confidentiality, authentication of data origin and connectionless integrity.
In plain English: the system knows where data is coming from and that it hasn’t been seen or modified on the way.
Why all this fuss just to maintain your connection? Well, it’s a trickier job than it might seem. For example, when viewing streaming video over a VPN connection while you’re on a train, you would typically lose all buffered data and have to start the video again every time the connection went down.
The features of the IKEv2 IPSec tunnel and ESP help to ensure a persistent connection, despite wrinkles like the IP address changing during the reconnection (as it well might when you’re connecting to someone else’s server, such as a Wi-Fi hotspot or mobile phone network), and allow the streaming video to resume from the point it was at when VPN connectivity was lost.
Source pcadvisor
When you’re sitting in a hotel room, at a customer’s office or in your own study, and you establish a VPN connection, your PC will generally stay logged on without any problems. However, when you’re relying on a Wi-Fi hotspot or mobile broadband dongle to establish a VPN connection while on the move, you may suffer frequent dropped connections and a cumbersome process for re-authenticating and re-establishing the VPN connection each time.
The VPN Reconnect feature allows Windows 7 to automatically re-establish active VPN connections after Internet connectivity is interrupted. As soon as Windows 7 reconnects to the internet, it will also reconnect to the VPN.
Inevitably, the VPN will still be unavailable as long as the internet connection is down, and the process of reconnecting will take a few seconds after access becomes available again, but VPN Reconnect at least ensures that your network resources will pop back up as soon as possible, without you having to fiddle around with anything.
We promised you some technical details, so: VPN Reconnect is basically an IPsec tunnel using the IKEv2 (Internet Key Exchange) protocol for key negotiation and for transmission of ESP (Encapsulating Security Payload) packets. ESP is part of the industry standard IPsec security architecture, which provides confidentiality, authentication of data origin and connectionless integrity.
In plain English: the system knows where data is coming from and that it hasn’t been seen or modified on the way.
Why all this fuss just to maintain your connection? Well, it’s a trickier job than it might seem. For example, when viewing streaming video over a VPN connection while you’re on a train, you would typically lose all buffered data and have to start the video again every time the connection went down.
The features of the IKEv2 IPSec tunnel and ESP help to ensure a persistent connection, despite wrinkles like the IP address changing during the reconnection (as it well might when you’re connecting to someone else’s server, such as a Wi-Fi hotspot or mobile phone network), and allow the streaming video to resume from the point it was at when VPN connectivity was lost.
Source pcadvisor
Friday, April 1, 2011
Ultimate guide to Windows 7 security
Windows 7 has been warmly received and swiftly adopted by businesses, with the result that many IT admins are now struggling with the platform’s new security features. In addition to changes to User Account Control, BitLocker, and other features inherited from Windows Vista, Windows 7 introduces a slew of security capabilities that businesses will want to take advantage of.
Windows 7 improves on Vista with a friendlier UAC mechanism, the ability to encrypt removable media and hard drive volumes, broader support for strong cryptographic ciphers, hassle-free secure remote access, and sophisticated protection against Trojan malware in the form of AppLocker, to name just a few.
In this guide, I’ll run through these and other significant security enhancements in Windows 7, and provide my recommendations for configuring and using them. I’ll pay especially close attention to the new AppLocker application control feature, which may be a Windows shop’s most practical and affordable way to combat socially engineered Trojan malware.
New and improved
Windows 7 has literally hundreds of security changes and additions, far too many to cover in one fell swoop. While this guide focuses on the ones that most organizations will be interested in, keep in mind that plenty of others may deserve your attention. A few the biggies not discussed here are built-in support for smart cards and biometrics, the ability to force the use of Kerberos in a feature called Restrict NTLM, and support for the new DNSSec standards, which are becoming essential to prevent DNS exploitation attacks. Also noteworthy is a new feature called Extended Protection for Authentication, which prevents many sophisticated man-in-the-middle attacks that can strike at some of our most trusted security protocols (such as SSL and TLS).
User Account Control
A Windows Vista feature that users loved to hate, User Account Control has been significantly improved to be both less intrusive and smarter at distinguishing between legitimate and potentially malicious activities in Windows 7. However, depending on whether you are logged on as administrator or a standard user, some installs of Windows 7 may have a default UAC security setting that’s one level lower than some experts (including yours truly) recommend. Standard users have UAC security default to the most secure setting, while administrator accounts reside a notch below the highest setting, which is potentially riskier.
Note too that, although UAC provides a much-needed mechanism to prevent the misuse of administrator privileges, it can be bypassed. If you need high security, users should not log on with an elevated user account until they need it.
Your domain environment should already be at the highest and most secure level (“Always notify”). If it isn’t, make it so. That way, users will be prompted to input their passwords to perform high risk administrative actions. No matter what else, UAC should be enabled.
more on hacking-news.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)