Introduction

Microsoft s Vista is by far the most secure version of its client-based operating system (OS) to date. Living by its motto of Trustworthy Computing Microsoft has taken many steps to ensure new levels of security to the Windows Vista base OS. Along with other tools and programs, Microsoft has released Internet Explorer 7, which is the most secure version of the famous browser released to date. Microsoft has also updated and released a plethora of documentation on the company s main Web site and on TechNet in coordination with the Vista release, to help you harden and prepare your system for use on the Internet or on a corporate network.

With all of these tools, documentation updates, and newly developed forms of technology and security you should be wondering why we still have to deal with so many computer-related issues. The fact is that every time we browse the Internet, we open our doors to danger. It s also a fact that we may never catch up to quell the growing threat. In the world of IT, the playing field is constantly changing, so as programming code becomes more bloated and newer features are added, consequently more exploits are added. Newly made software and software that has been updated will always have issues that will be resolved only through update installations, hotfixes, service packs (SPs), and/or complete OS or program upgrades. As this chapters title implies, the battle against malware does in fact live on. You do have an option...