Diary of a Network Geek

The trials and tribulations of a Certified Novell Engineer who's been stranded in Houston, Texas.

12/15/2005

NSA CSS OS Guidelines

Filed under: Apple,Geek Work,MicroSoft,Rotten Apples,The Dark Side — Posted by the Network Geek during the Hour of the Tiger which is terribly early in the morning or 4:48 am for you boring, normal people.
The moon is Waning Gibbous

Woo! That’s a lot of acronyms!
So, let’s break this down… What I’ve got here for you fine computer geeks who read my sad, little blog is a link to the National Security Agency Central Security Service computer Operating Systems security configuration guides. Clear as mud now, right? Okay, so what this is, in a nutshell, is a listing of guidelines from the NSA about how to configure and run server and desktop operating systems to their security standards. Or, at least, to the standard they release to the public. The latent paranoid conspiracy theorist in me can’t shake the feeling that the NSA doesn’t generally have an outward flow of information. And, they list four versions of Windows there, as if they can be actually secured. Surely, that must seem suspicious to my readers. Of course, they also have info for Macintosh and Solaris systems, so, you never know.
Anyway, it’s fun information from the NSA, so go have fun with it!

4 Comments

  1. Oh, thanks for that NG. I found the articles, but got distracted by the “Careers” section of the website and the “About NSA” section. I find this section about the NSA intriguing:

    It coordinates, directs, and performs highly specialized activities to protect U.S. government information systems and produce foreign signals intelligence information. A high technology organization, NSA is on the frontiers of communications and data processing.

    Now that would be an interesting place to work for a year or so…

    Comment by PM — 12/15/2005 @ 7:25 am

  2. Yeah, somehow, I think if I managed to get in, which I actually could manage from a security standpoint, as I have a clean record and used to be a Boy Scout, I’d end up staying for more than a year.
    Jim Hoffman, Geek Super Spy. Hmm, yeah, maybe not…

    Comment by the Network Geek — 12/15/2005 @ 8:55 am

  3. ng, just what do you do with swords?

    Comment by desert boy — 12/15/2005 @ 11:42 am

  4. Well, not much with swords these days, but I used to fence. In fact, I have an actual, genuine fencing scar, though it’s mostly faded with time now. Why do you ask? Been reading the old resume? 😉

    Comment by the Network Geek — 12/15/2005 @ 12:11 pm

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