NSA Guide To Securing Operating Systems

[Bobbing]

NSA has developed and distributed configuration guidance for operating systems. These guides are currently being used throughout the government and by numerous entities as a security baseline for their systems.

http://www.nsa.gov/ia/guidance/security_configuration_guides/operating_systems.shtml

 

[iisjman07]

If they hired professional system administrators then there may not be such a need for this guide. Things like the wikileaks burning of confidential US military information onto a 'lady-gaga cd' shouldn't happen, and to be fair a system administrator should put in at least basic security measures to prevent this.

Same goes for the Gary McKinnon case; he created a tiny perl script that scans for windows machines using no/a default administrative password. He was then allowed to install remote access software and access unencrypted military data. Basic security really is not rocket science.

Not saying this guide is a bad thing; just the phrase 'an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure' springs to mind. If I was the US military I would hire a linux developer to create a secure OS from scratch and serve all their needs exactly.

 

[sys-eng]

I know a guy that works for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). He was a business major in college. His IT/computer knowledge was limited to that of an average PC user. He is the system administrator of his local network and server by default. Everything he has learned has been self-taught OJT. He has no real passion or interest in IT.

As long as the government has people managing computers like this, manuals like this NSA doc is very good.

 

[Benchtech]

I know a guy that works for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). He was a business major in college. His IT/computer knowledge was limited to that of an average PC user. He is the system administrator of his local network and server by default. Everything he has learned has been self-taught OJT. He has no real passion or interest in IT.

As long as the government has people managing computers like this, manuals like this NSA doc is very good.

OJT? To many damn acronyms...

 

[sys-eng]

OJT? To many damn acronyms...

On Job Training (OJT)

 

[Benchtech]

On Job Training (OJT)

Picking through the analyzer now