nokitel.co.uk – BITCHFEST

Overview

The Windows XP Security Guide has been updated to provide specific recommendations about how to harden computers that run Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2) in three distinct environments:

Information about the security features in SP2 was included as an appendix to the previous version of this guide. This information has now been integrated throughout the guide, and thoroughly tested templates for Windows Firewall security settings (Windows Firewall replaced the Internet Connection Firewall in SP2) are provided. Information is also provided about closing ports, Remote Procedure Call (RPC) communications, memory protection, e-mail handling, Web download controls, spyware controls, and much more.
This guide is primarily intended for consultants, security specialists, systems architects, and IT planners who plan application or infrastructure development and the deployment of Windows XP workstations in an enterprise environment. It is not intended for home users, but for individuals whose job roles include the following:

Download Windows XP Security Guide v2.1 (.zip)

Summary: This allows you to be administrator but run any program (ex: IE) in non Admin mode, protecting you from spyware & viruses properly. Keep in mind we’re using ONLY tools created by Microsoft, no 3rd party here.

Step 1. Install the MS Util “Drop My Rights” from here.
If you want to read (too much) about the utility here.

Step 2. Choose to install it to your WinDir folder (often C:\Windows\ ), do not create a special folder for it!

Step 3. When you want to run a program (or website) you can’t trust (IE) simply set your icon’s Target (found in the icon properties) to something like this

%windir%\DropMyRights.exe “c:\some\app.exe” n

The “n” is the privilege mode, you can choose from:
* “n” is normal non-admin user mode (best choice)
You still are yourself minus the admin privileges. Keep in mind that “n” mode still gives IE (spyware, virus) power over your personal files (read, delete), but prevents the spyware/virus from installing or infecting anything. You should always surf this way 24/7.

* “c” is for paranoid mode
Most things work, there is no read/write access to your files (this includes favorites) so you are protected from most anything.

* “u” is for super paranoid mode but most things won’t work correctly.
if you want to access a truly dangerous site then you want this setting

Step 4. (Optional) If you want to add a (MS created) toolbar to IE that shows your current privileges check here.

Side Notes:
- If you want to install an app you get from the web, save it to your PC first, you won’t be able to install it from within IE in protected mode (this is a good thing)

- Any application that the 1st application launches will use the same restrictive rights (ex: while in IE you click a PDF or Media Player, they will run in the same restricted mode).

- Windows Vista 2006 will have official support for this natively and will run IE in reduced mode by default

If you don’t want to change to a new browser I think that the above guide will help you secure IE so that spyware, adaware and all of that shit won’t infect your computer. The article was found on theSpoke.net. Maybe some people might find it useful…

If things couldn’t fuck up any more, my motherboard went a couple of days ago. More like last week. So at the moment playing with a SuSe Linux version 9.2 (were 9.3 is out and even 10.0!) is a bit annoying. I am not saying that it sucks, just it takes some time to install it (4 or so CDs if you want a GUI) and is a bit slow on the P3 500mhz 128mb ram computer. And if that isn’t bad enough, apparently there is a “DMA Timeout” error that I get when booting. So that takes a little longer until things settle down.
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Is not bad enough that I have exams. Mind you I’ve taken a few exams before so I am not actually “nervous” or all that crap. So I just go in do my thing and leave. And then getting a pass or a failure is another thing. I’m hoping of course that I will pass, but looking at the amount of revision I have been doing I somehow doubt that.

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Bill Gates is on a mission to build a Google killer. What got him so riled? The darling of search is moving into software-and that’s Microsoft’s turf.

Microsoft was already months into A massive project aimed at taking down Google when the truth began to dawn on Bill Gates. It was December 2003. He was poking around on the Google company website and came across a help-wanted page with descriptions of all the open jobs at Google. Why, he wondered, were the qualifications for so many of them identical to Microsoft job specs? Google was a web search business, yet here on the screen were postings for engineers with backgrounds that had nothing to do with search and everything to do with Microsoft’s core business-people trained in things like operating-system design, compiler optimization, and distributed-systems architecture. Gates wondered whether Microsoft might be facing much more than a war in search. An e-mail he sent to a handful of execs that day said, in effect, “We have to watch these guys. It looks like they are building something to compete with us.”

He sure got that right. Today Google isn’t just a hugely successful search engine; it has morphed into a software company and is emerging as a major threat to Microsoft’s dominance. You can use Google software with any Internet browser to search the web and your desktop for just about anything; send and store up to two gigabytes of e-mail via Gmail (Hotmail, Microsoft’s rival free e-mail service, offers 250 megabytes, a fraction of that); manage, edit, and send digital photographs using Google’s Picasa software, easily the best PC photo software out there; and, through Google’s Blogger, create, post online, and print formatted documents-all without applications from Microsoft.

This article is excellent. Is worth a read no matter what! :D Is about time some new competition came along that made Microsoft wake up. Let’s see if new software is released now, new ideas, better and easier to use software. At the moment only Google is coming up with at the moment. What I am thinking now is that Microsoft will soon, as usual follow up with its copy-cats software that aren’t original at all. Let’s wait and see what happens I say.