Hardening Windows
Apress sent me an early copy of Hardening Windows by Jonathan Hassell. At first, I was a little disappointed with this book, but after thinking about the content for a bit, I learned it isn’t all that bad.
No matter how secure you make a Windows server or network, you’re always limited due to one fact: closed source. You have no clue how secure the programs Microsoft releases are. Because of that, you just have to do your best with the tools Microsoft gives you to secure them yourself. And that’s what this book covers.
I really wouldn’t consider this book advanced. All the topics can be read by an entry or novice level Windows System Administrator. The book covers all the current major Windows Operating Systems up to 2003 Server; web and email security are covered for IIS and Exchange; and Group Policy and WSUS (patch management) are covered for software security.
Each topic shows you how to use the tools and services Microsoft gives you to secure and harden the topic at hand. At the end of each chapter, a nice checklist is given for quick reference.
There were two things I didn’t like about the book. The first was the chapter on Network Access Quarantine Control. It was very hard to read and understand how it worked. Too many Microsoft acronyms and terms thrown in. The second was the lack of third party tools that could have been mentioned. It’s no surprise that the tools Microsoft gives you out of the box aren’t the greatest — for example, I’ve never met anyone who thinks the Event Viewer is a wonderful logging tool.
I’d recommend this book if you’re new to Windows Security. Anyone who has around two years experience managing Windows boxes will already know all the topics covered. I give it a 7/10.
Posted by joe on Monday, October 31st, 2005
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