Windows 7 security is the top most dominating feature, which has raised the global demand of its installation. There are plenty of new features along with some good modification in the previous features and the operating system offers enhanced security for both online and offline activities.

Microsoft has blessed its new operating system with some innovative features, such as DirectAccess, Biometric Security, Applocker, Windows Filtering Platform (WFP). Besides, there has been a considerable improvement in previous features, like Windows Secuirty Center of Vista has been presented in a more effective way as Action Center, BitLocker has been revised to perform advanced job.

With the modified and innovative features, like BitLocker, you can share your data with your colleague without any worry, DirectAccess helps to share your office network in a secure manner, when you are on move. With Action Center, you can troubleshoot the problems arising with software and hardware conflicts in a much better way. BitLocker feature, which is useful for encrypting your data files, is not available with the Windows 7 Home Premium Edition. It has been observed that the files encrypted are hard to recover, in case of any data loss.

Windows 7 Firewall has been modified to a great extent, now it can filter both inbound and outbound traffic of your computer’s network. Windows Defender can be customized well, under the Advanced Setting option, available in Control Panel, for quick, complete and partial scanning of your computer’s memory. While in Vista, you were permitted for doing only basic setting. In addition to this, you can also customize it as per your need to scan public network, home network or work network. Moreover, you can perform scanning of each one at the same time, it was also restricted in earlier Vista, where you can do scanning of one network at a time. Next improvement has been done with the restriction from User Account Control, which doesn’t allow others to perform any setting change over your PC in your absence.

With effective Windows Firewall, Windows Defender and software, you can keep your computer safe from viruses and ensure good performance. Adding on, you can remain free from frequent computer’s issues like sluggish performance, slow startup, blue-screen error and computer’s freezing. You can keep your Windows registry in sound condition, which is the God father of your computer.

Understanding the global threat about cyber-crime and other malilcious softwre, Microsoft has done a complete overhauling in the security feature of Windows 7. With the new operating system, you can share your computer’s data and peripheral devices like, printers and scanners in a much secured manner.

Advantages and disadvantages are always associated with any development. There are some limitations in Windows 7 security, like Windows Firewall has been observed to be getting disabled on attack of some sophisticated viruses. Windows 7 still using the same encrypt arithmetic as the previous versions of Windows. That means that if you need to reset Windows 7 password, you can just use the similar methods like Windows Vista or XP. Sometimes you even have to use some Windows 7 password recovery software that is used for Windows 7 password reset. Further, it also raises issues while installing some new programs or making some download from any website. Windows Defender needs to be configured well after each and every new installation work you perform on your computer.

For attaining better security over your Windows 7 installed computer, you should keep your Windows update enabled, when you are online. Status of Windows Defender should be monitored on regular basis. In addition, your computer must have a compatible antivirus program.

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Windows 7 is supposed to the most secure version of Windows yet.
Windows7 Operating System software is built on top of Windows Vista base code and hence it offers much of the same level of security that Windows Vista offered. However, Windows 7 has added some more new features to operating system security and streamlined the user account control.

The default user account that is created during the installation in Windows 7 is a protected administrator that would only be prompted when programs try to make changes to the system’s configuration or when the user modifies the operating system settings and the User Account Control does not raise any flag.

This setting is apparently very comfortable for the user, particularly in terms of usability, because the Operating System is not incessantly bothering the user with a popup window and requesting several clicks in order to permit a program execution.

Still, it already been shown that the default value can easily change into an undesired security problem that could easily permit the self elevation of malware to full administrative privileges and run malicious code with no trouble at all. In order to safeguard your data and protect your system and prevent random codes from being executed, you should modify the default value of the User Account Control (UAC).

AutoPlay and/or AutoRun is one of the most, if not the most prolific tools for spreading e threats, including viruses and Trojans and depends on the exploitation of a rather simple yet very effective feature of the Windows 7 operating system.

AutoRun and/or AutoPlay permits the initiation or execution of numerous actions, such as to launch particular software or play the video and/or audio content in the correct player, namely a setup routine when DVDs or CDs are inserted and the USB sticks and flash drives or portable HDDs are plugged in or inserted.

This innocent behavior can be hijacked for malicious purposes, via the corruption of the files that actually store the information required by the operating system to perform a suite of actions or read the media content.

Therefore, instead of just opening the initial panel for setting up an application, such as playing a movie that is stored on a DVD or reading a Word document, the user could actually involuntarily trigger a piece of concealed malware.

The malware then steals his or her sensitive data, such as recorded key strokes, address book entries, passwords, and usernames and either opens the door to even more unwanted e threats or, worse yet, sends the details about the users on line transactions, such as credit card numbers.

To protect your system and data and to prevent malware infections, disable the AutoRun and/or AutoPlay feature.

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The recently released Microsoft Security Intelligence Report highlights the vast improvements in security from Windows XP to Windows 7. Even so, no operating system is perfect. I asked security experts what they think about Windows 7 security and came up with a list of what Microsoft got right and where Microsoft is still missing the mark.

A Step in the Right Direction

Microsoft made significant changes to how it protects the Windows operating system kernel and added a number of new security controls when it transitioned from Windows XP to Windows Vista. With Windows 7, many of those security controls are enhanced and there are some new features as well.

Here are three things Microsoft got right with Windows 7 security:

1. ASLR and DEP. ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) and DEP (Data Execution Prevention) both existed in Windows Vista, but have been improved for Windows 7. ASLR makes it more complicated for attackers to determine where core functions reside in memory, and DEP prevents buffer overflow attacks from working on files or in storage areas that are specifically intended to hold data.

Sophos Senior Security Advisor Chet Wisniewski says " ASLR was massively improved in Windows 7. This means that libraries (DLL’s) are loaded into random memory addresses each time you boot. Malware often depends on specific files being in certain memory locations and this technology helps stop buffer overflows from working properly."

Wisniewski also notes that DEP now protects Internet Explorer and other key Windows services that were not protected by DEP in Windows Vista.

Windows 7 Bitlocker2. BitLocker-to-Go. Microsoft added BitLocker drive encryption in Windows Vista. Originally it was only capable of encrypting the partition that Windows was actually installed on, but the functionality was expanded with Service Pack 1 to include additional partitions or volumes--but not portable storage.

Tyler Reguly, Lead Security Research Engineer with nCircle, notes that with Windows 7, Microsoft has included the ability to encrypt data on USB thumb drives. Reguly says that with the popularity of USB thumb drives--capable of holding gigabytes of data--"the expansion of BitLocker to include removable drives should be counted as a significant enhancement."

3. IE8. Internet Explorer 8 is not specific to Windows 7--users of other Windows operating systems are also free to download and use the new Web browser. But, both Reguly and Wisniewski agree that it should go on the list.

Tyler Reguly commented that "The release of IE8 makes it evident that Microsoft is starting to take browser security seriously."

Sophos' Wisniewski elaborated more, explaining that IE8 "includes a new protection called SmartScreen which is similar to the protection in Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. This anti-phishing/anti-malware URL filtering is built into the browser, which can block known bad sites and helps protect users."

In addition, IE8 highlights the actual domain of the URL in bold on the address bar. The added emphasis makes the true domain stand out and can act as a phishing deterrent by alerting the user when a fake or malicious URL may be directing them to a different domain than they were expecting.

More Work to Be Done

As far as Microsoft has come with security, its not perfect. No operating system ever will be. Still, it can't hurt to try so here is a look at some of the areas that Windows 7 is lacking and perhaps some ideas for Microsoft to work on for Windows 8.

1. Windows Firewall. The Windows Firewall is an area where Microsoft has come a long (long) way from its original attempt at incorporating personal firewall protection into the operating system. One of the primary complaints about earlier versions was that it only restricted inbound traffic and did not provide any mechanism for blocking or filtering traffic outbound from the Windows PC. Microsoft has addressed that.

nCircle's Tyler Reguly says "As a personal choice, I won’t use third-party firewall software. I find them to be too resource-intensive and too much of a pain. So, I would love it if the Windows Firewall was more powerful."

I should note, though, that perhaps there is a correlation between "more powerful" and "resource-intensive". Perhaps the reason third-party personal firewalls eat up more resources is related to the more comprehensive protection they provide.

This may be an area where Microsoft simply needs to strike the right balance between security and performance.

2. Hidden File Extensions. Microsoft continues to hide known file extensions by default. In other words, rather than displaying a full file name like 'pcworld.docx', Windows will only display 'pcworld'.

The idea is to make things more simple or user-friendly. We don't want to confuse the end-user with frivolous details like 'docx', or 'xls', or 'mp3'.

Chet Wisniewski points out, though, that hiding the file names is a security concern as well. He says that hiding file extensions "makes it much easier for email Trojans to use double extensions to trick users into launching their payload. Files named FinancialStatement.doc.exe will appear to the user as FinancialStatement.doc with an EXE icon."

3. XP Mode Virtualization. Windows XP Mode virtualization can be a savior for situations where there are legacy hardware devices or software applications that won't work under Windows 7. The system can still be upgraded to Windows 7, but the incompatible hardware or software can be run in a virtual Windows XP environment.

The operative concern here, though, is that it is a complete Windows XP environment that is not protected in any way by the Windows 7 security controls. Wisniewski explains "Windows XP Mode introduces another layer of complexity for securing a Windows desktop. Because a total virtual machine (VM) is running on your PC that requires you to run a full security suite within that VM and manage that appropriately."

Wisniewski also notes that "By default Windows auto-maps drives from your XP virtual machine to your Windows 7 machine. This could be a major malware vector if not properly protected."

The ever-popular UAC (User Account Control) gets an honorable mention as a pro and a con. Although it has been both presented and perceived as a security control, UAC is more about enforcing sound software development practices. Security is sort of a fringe benefit.

Tyler Reguly likes the changes Microsoft has made for UAC with Windows 7. "The decreased interruptions will mean more people will leave UAC on, this is definitely a benefit. It ends up being more functionality, less security, but can still be seen as an improvement in security overall."

Chet Wisniewski counters by pointing out that UAC is not really a security function in the first place, but also comments that " Microsoft does need to continue to use UAC to encourage developers to follow proper privilege separation models, because this can help Microsoft make a more secure Windows, but it should not be positioned as a feature to the end-user."


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