Windows NT Security Guide

The ins and outs of NT's native securityfeatures

Computer security is a hot topic this year, no matter what operating systemyou use. Your Windows NT system is not immune to security problems, and you maywonder how to secure your system better. Stephen A. Sutton's book, WindowsNT Security Guide, will help your NT security endeavors. Sutton is presidentof Trusted System Services and has a reputation as knowledgeable in the NTsecurity field. His book is a fairly detailed guide to the ins and outs of NT'snative security features.

The book covers everything from accounts and domains to recommendationsabout how to secure installation. The Guide has three basic parts: generalinformation targeted at day-to-day NT users; administration, written for systemsadministrators; and assessment, designed for people who need to know whether NTis secure enough for their requirements.

Let's quickly peek at each section. In Part 1, "General Use,"Sutton discusses user accounts, NT domains, working environment, access controllists, and special situations such as using NT's Remote Access Service (RAS).This part of the book is very useful, especially for those new to NT's securityfeatures.

The next section, "Administration," covers planning NT domains,managing groups and accounts, security auditing, the Internet and intranets,trusted computing bases, and NT subsystems such as the Registry. This sectionfinishes with a chapter called "Summary and Checklist." A would-beadministrator will find information that will assist in building a good NTdomain model and in managing users, groups, and resources adequately. Theadministration section is similar to Mark Minasi's Mastering Windows NTServer, except that Sutton writes from an acute security perspective,offering detailed information about each security dialog item. The closing "Summaryand Checklist" chapter is a handy quick reference list to the completeadministration section.

Part 3, "Assessment," consists of one chapter devoted to NTsecurity. This section discusses the Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria(TCSEC--better known as the Orange Book--a government gauge for security) as itpertains to NT; networking using TCSEC; and a broad brush of NT security,feature by feature.

The Guide also contains an appendix on secure installations of NT. I foundthis section the most useful one of the book. The eight pages provide excellenthow-to information for almost anyone who is installing an NT system. Thisappendix covers Registry settings, file systems access control lists (ACLs),user rights policies, and a few miscellaneous items such as disabling bootingfrom floppy disks and limiting access to system-shutdown features.

Overall, Sutton's Guide is useful because it describes each of NT'sinternal security features. However, the book focuses almost exclusively onteaching the reader about the security features of NT, without much regard tobuilding a secure network or connecting to untrusted networks. You will notlearn much from this book about firewalls, proxy servers, virtual privatenetworking, or other functions that you may need to build your NT networkenvironment. Although the book contains a chapter entitled "The Internetand Intranets," half of the chapter very generally describes the types ofattacks your network may experience, and the other half quickly discusses someof Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS) security concerns.

If you're new to NT security, Sutton's Windows NT Security Guide willhelp you get started. The book definitely provides valuable information about ahands-on approach to NT security administration, but you'll probably findyourself wanting to learn much more about building a secure computingenvironment--especially if you're connecting to the Internet or to a businesspartner's network.