Hack Proofing Windows 2000 Server
Addresses concerns one might have about network security and how to protect your network environment.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Hack Proofing Windows 2000 Server
Chapter 4: Secure Networking Using Windows 2000 Distributed Security Services
Introduction
Security concerns are relatively new to the PC world. In the early days of personal computing, most systems were standalone units that could be protected simply by locking an office door. Mainframe computers have long used high-level security technology to protect sensitive business data, but only as PCs began to be networked to one another first within the organization and then later connected to other networks and the global Internet did businesses start to worry about protecting the data on their hard drives from prying eyes.
Microsoft s NT Server software makes it easy for companies to join their PCs together and share all the benefits of networking in terms of convenience and cost savings. As those networks have grown, so have concerns about the security of the data that resides on them.
The Way We Were: Security in NT
Microsoft responded to those concerns by increasing its attention to security issues in the NT operating system as the product matured (in fact, many of its service packs have addressed just that issue), but many industry watchers and users have always considered security to be one of NT s less than strong points, compared with alternative network operating systems. The NTLM security protocol used in NT, although providing a reasonable level of security for most purposes, has several drawbacks:
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It is proprietary, not an industrywide standard and not popular outside Microsoft networking.
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It does not provide mutual authentication; that is, although the server authenticates the client, there is no reciprocal authentication on the...
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