Chapter 7: Conclusion

Updated: April 13, 2006

Congratulations. Now that you have finished this guide, you should have a clearer understanding of how to assess risks that may affect the security of computers that run the Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional with Service Pack 2 (SP2) operating system in your organization. You have gained an understanding of how to plan for and design security into your infrastructure client computers where it is possible to do so.

This guide includes material from consultants and systems engineers who have implemented Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003, and Windows 2000 solutions in a variety of organizational settings. It is designed to provide you with a current set of best practices for working with Windows XP, and the prescriptive information in this guide can be applied to any organization.

Security is a serious topic, regardless of your organization's environment. However, many organizations do not emphasize security because they mistakenly view it as something that restricts their agility and flexibility. When well-designed security becomes a core business requirement and is planned for at the start of every information technology (IT) project, a properly implemented security strategy can help to improve the availability and performance of your computer systems. Conversely, a security strategy that is added to a project as an afterthought can negatively affect usability, stability, and management flexibility. For these reasons, this guide suggests that every organization consider security as one of its highest priorities.

Securing the Client

Windows XP Professional offers a complete set of security solutions to safeguard against threats to desktop and laptop computers. Although users whose computers are not joined to a domain have fewer security options, both domain-joined and stand-alone users benefit from secure access to their computers.

Enterprise Clients

When a client computer is part of an organization’s network, it is possible that the network administrator will configure the computer through the Group Policy security features of the Active Directory® directory service that are detailed in this guide. Any Group Policy settings that a network administrator applies take precedence over any local settings that users configure on their computers. Group Policy allows administrators to manage environments that include many different types of client computers.

Specialized Security – Limited Functionality Clients

The Specialized Security – Limited Functionality (SSLF) environment that is described in this guide emphasizes the issues of access, services, and infrastructure environment. In addition to elevated security controls and user authentication, administrators have greater control over access to resources and objects on the network and the client workstations. This control is required by administrators who must keep data and resources secure, and will inevitably limit what tasks can be performed on a SSLF client computer. However, this limited capability is necessary because of the increased security requirements in this type of environment.

Stand-Alone Clients

Although fewer security policy settings are available for stand-alone client computers than those that belong to an Active Directory domain, key security features are available for such computers. Proper configuration of these policy settings on stand-alone computers will help minimize the risk of vulnerabilities being exploited. The stand-alone environment imposes more administrative overhead because these computers cannot be managed through domain-based Group Policy. However, use of the tools that are described in this guide will help to reduce administrative overhead.

Software Restriction Policy

Software restriction policy provides administrators with a way to identify software that runs on client computers in a domain or stand-alone environment and control the software’s ability to execute. It can be used to block malicious scripts or code and prevent the execution of unwanted applications. Software restriction policy can be configured for stand-alone systems or managed through domain-based Group Policy to promote improved system integrity and manageability.

Summary

This guide explained how to effectively assess, prioritize, and mitigate security risks in three distinct environments for computers that run Windows XP with SP2. Documented methods about how to plan and design security for an organization's network infrastructure were provided, as well as detailed guidance about how to assess and mitigate specific vulnerabilities on computers in the types of environments that are defined in the guide.

The reasons for the choices that were made are explained in terms of the tradeoffs that are involved when an organization decides whether to implement the different policy settings for the three environments. Detailed information is provided about how specific policy settings may affect functionality, manageability, performance, and reliability so that you can make informed choices about which settings to implement in your own environment.

It is important to understand that the task of securing the client computers in your network is not a one-time project but a continuous process. Organizations should include security-related tasks and planning in their budgets and schedules. Implementation of every policy setting that is discussed in this guide will improve the security in most organizations that operate Windows XP Professional. However, when the next serious vulnerability is discovered, these environments may again be susceptible to attack. For this reason, it is critical to monitor a variety of resources to stay current about security issues that are related to the operating systems, applications, and devices in your environment.

Every member of the team that produced this guide hopes that you find the material in it to be useful, informative, and easy to understand.

More Information

The following links provide additional information about Windows XP Professional security-related topics.

  • For links to common questions and answers, instructions, the latest downloads, and more, see the Windows XP Help and Support at https://support.microsoft.com/winxp.
  • For information about maintaining security with Windows XP, see the Trustworthy Computing: Security site at https://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/twc/security/default.mspx.
  • For information about security on TechNet, see the Technet Security Center at https://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/default.mspx.
  • For information about planning for Windows XP Professional, see the Windows XP Professional – Plan page on TechNet at https://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/plan/default.mspx.
  • For Security How-to Resources for Windows XP Professional, see https://www.microsoft.com/technet/itsolutions/howto/sechow.mspx.
  • For how-to information about Encrypting and Decrypting Data with the Encrypting File System (EFS), see https://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/sag_seconceptsunencrypt.mspx.

This accelerator is part of a larger series of tools and guidance from Solution Accelerators.

Download

Get the Windows XP Security Guide

Solution Accelerator Notifications

Sign up to stay informed

Feedback

Send us your comments or suggestions