The NSA Gives Their Two Cents On Securing XP/2K/NT

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The NSA Gives Their Two Cents On Securing XP/2K/NT 36

Posted by timothy on Tuesday April 22, 2003 @08:38PM from the plus-inflation dept.

caino59 writes "Thier site is already slow, and must be taking a hit, but the NSA has released several guides on Securing Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows NT. Now go out and download the guides, and /. the NSA!"

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The NSA Gives Their Two Cents On Securing XP/2K/NT

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They call it the "power" button (Score:5, Funny)

by JustAnOtherCodeSerf ( 181281 ) writes: on Tuesday April 22, 2003 @08:46PM (#5786075)

Just switch it to the "off" position... website secure :)

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- Re:They call it the "power" button (Score:2)
  
  by vidnet ( 580068 ) writes:
  
  And response times are cut in half!
  Sorry, that was a cheap one.
Wait! Don't... (Score:1, Funny)

by cyphem ( 609056 ) writes:

The NSA might take this for a DDOS attack and make Georgy start a war on slashdot!

On the other hand... This might 'free' us innocent slashdotters from the CowboyNeal regime... yay!

;)
cy
better idears... (Score:1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes:
these guides could have been much much simpler to write. Why I could do that in this post:
1. Purchase Windows product.
2. Receive shrink-wrapped package.
3. Place shrink-wrapped package in closet.
4. Lock closet
5. Throw key into nearest incinerator.
There. Simple, quick, and easy to follow.
The only way... (Score:2, Funny)

by sICE ( 92132 ) writes:

... to secure a win box is to put it in concrete [www.uoe.dk] and throw it deep [noaa.gov] in the ocean. [netfirms.com]

--
great logic (Score:3, Insightful)

by larry bagina ( 561269 ) writes: on Tuesday April 22, 2003 @08:54PM (#5786114) Journal

download the guides and slashdot the NSA....
After all, the majority of slashdot readers use windows NT/2000/Xp.

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- Re:great logic (Score:3, Funny)
  
  by GimmeFuel ( 589906 ) writes:
  
  You can still download them; just don't bother reading them.
- Re:great logic (Score:1, Interesting)
  
  by Anonymous Coward writes:
  
  After all, the majority of slashdot readers use windows NT/2000/Xp.
  Maybe you're trying to be sarcastic, but it's true. Most readers of slashdot surf in on Windows.
  Plus, I would bet at least a couple of slashdot readers have "jobs", and when you have a "job" it's often in your best interest to be knowledgable about the subject.
  Sure, be high and mighty about Linux, but someone's gotta run those Windows machines for the unwashed masses.
I hate to point this out... (Score:4, Informative)

by Blaise ( 8438 ) writes: on Tuesday April 22, 2003 @08:55PM (#5786118)

but the page hasn't been updated since november 2002. I've had these guides, which are excellent BTW, for all of 2003.

It even says so at the bottom of the page.

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- Re:I hate to point this out... (Score:1)
  
  by sICE ( 92132 ) writes:
  
  bah, windows xp wasnt updated since a long time too. perhaps SP1a in march, to fix the new bug provided by SP1... well, all in all it shouldn't be worse. [netfirms.com]
  
  --
  - Re:I hate to point this out... (Score:4, Informative)
    
    by caino59 ( 313096 ) writes: on Tuesday April 22, 2003 @09:26PM (#5786290) Homepage
    
    actually, check the "What's new or Updated" link
    
    here [nsa.gov] for the lazy.
    
    says the win2k guide updated next month ;oP
    
    5-Mar-03
    
    and yes, the cisco guide is a bit old at 10-feb-03 and the xp guide even older at 6-feb-03(my b-day!)
    
    and i think a lot of people out there that have to maintain Microsoft servers, so this may be advantageous to someone...
    
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Download times and size are interesting... (Score:3, Interesting)

by (H)elix1 ( 231155 ) writes: <slashdot.helix@nOSPaM.gmail.com> on Wednesday April 23, 2003 @12:39AM (#5787110) Homepage Journal

I'll have some quality time on the airplane, so I will probably browse what they wrote. What is struck me as interesting was large and how long mozilla's download manager says it will take to get the zip files.

Win2K - 13,008KB, ~1.4 hours
WinNT - 1,282 ~ 10 minutes
WinXP - 1,713 ~12 minutes

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Conflict of interest (Score:3, Funny)

by mfh ( 56 ) writes: on Wednesday April 23, 2003 @02:28AM (#5787434) Homepage Journal

Wouldn't it be ahh... against the NSA's true interests to tell people how to secure private machines better?

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- Re:Conflict of interest (Score:4, Insightful)
  
  by TheLink ( 130905 ) writes: on Wednesday April 23, 2003 @12:11PM (#5790330) Journal
  
  Nope. After all they're in charge of National Security.
  
  If they need access to a private machine I'm sure it's trivial for them in most cases.
  
  I'd think the difficulty for them is probably figuring out _who_ to give extra special interest to. Given the many enemies of the USA, they've probably got a big list of whos.
  
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Wait a minute.... (Score:2, Interesting)

by Repran ( 560270 ) writes:

Doesn't freely available security support terrorism by its very nature?
- Someone Realized (Score:2, Interesting)
  
  by LordMyren ( 15499 ) writes:
  
  -PGP has been out for years,
  -its too late
  -they're either already using encryption or will not be
  -maybe might as well help normal people secure they're information
  
  And every copy of Windows has one backdoor for CIA, NSA, FBI, Homeland and the three other agencies your not classified to know about.
- Re:Conxsion Mirror (Score:1, Informative)
  
  by Anonymous Coward writes:
  
  instead of cutting and pasting above site click here [conxion.com]
Isn't it ironic... (Score:2)

by Cheetahfeathers ( 93473 ) writes:

We're gunna trust an agency that _wants_ to spy on us on advice about how to secure a system so it can't be broken into as easily? Um... ok. :)
- Re:Isn't it ironic... (Score:1)
  
  by LordMyren ( 15499 ) writes:
  
  They dont want to spy on us,
  Its only their job.
- Re:Isn't it ironic... (Score:4, Insightful)
  
  by ocelotbob ( 173602 ) writes: <ocelot@nosPAm.ocelotbob.org> on Thursday April 24, 2003 @04:21PM (#5802794) Homepage
  
  It's not as simple as it seems. The NSA is essentially two organizations -- one whose job it is to break communications, another whose job it is to make sure communications don't get broken. This even means helping industry with codes - they had a major say in portions of DES, in which they designed portions such as the S-Boxes so that they were less vulnerable to still classified (at the time) types of cryptoanalysis. This isn't to say that one should blindly trust the NSA in matters of security, only to say that things are more complex than many would believe upon casual inspection.
  
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Old news, kinda (Score:1)

by oaf357 ( 661305 ) writes:

I've been using their Cisco guide for a few years now. It's updated quite often and is at least a good read for those looking into double checking their IT security.

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The NSA Gives Their Two Cents On Securing XP/2K/NT 36

The NSA Gives Their Two Cents On Securing XP/2K/NT More Login

The NSA Gives Their Two Cents On Securing XP/2K/NT

They call it the "power" button (Score:5, Funny)

Re:They call it the "power" button (Score:2)

Wait! Don't... (Score:1, Funny)

better idears... (Score:1, Funny)

The only way... (Score:2, Funny)

great logic (Score:3, Insightful)

Re:great logic (Score:3, Funny)

Re:great logic (Score:1, Interesting)

I hate to point this out... (Score:4, Informative)

Re:I hate to point this out... (Score:1)

Re:I hate to point this out... (Score:4, Informative)

Download times and size are interesting... (Score:3, Interesting)

Conflict of interest (Score:3, Funny)

Re:Conflict of interest (Score:4, Insightful)

Wait a minute.... (Score:2, Interesting)

Someone Realized (Score:2, Interesting)

Re:Conxsion Mirror (Score:1, Informative)

Isn't it ironic... (Score:2)

Re:Isn't it ironic... (Score:1)

Re:Isn't it ironic... (Score:4, Insightful)

Old news, kinda (Score:1)

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