Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer - Essay Example So my plans are to find out what error is preventing my firewall form being able to be scanned. I will also take protective measures in establishing password expirations for my user accounts. Overall, I’m not surprised at the results of my security assessment due to the fact that I’m the only user of this computer, and I exercise safe practices while using it, and I only use it on an as needed basis. MBSA is multi-threaded and has the capacity to scan a whole domain and extensive address range within a short time frame. One MBSA system can operate a scanning process in a few seconds to several minutes; however, this depends on the number of user machines. A lot of time is usually taken in scanning for weak passwords when utilizing MBSA machines. Such tests involve checking empty passwords together with common password dimensions such as: The name of the machine, user name, and administrator. In order to avoid frequent checking of passwords, it is pertinent to scan a person’s premises more often. When the weak passwords are not tested or checked, the option for testing (Checking) passwords for Windows accounts as well as SQL accounts are disabled (Fahland and Schultze, 2010). Majority of users log on to computers or in to remote computers through utilization of a combined user name and a password keyed into the keyboard. In spite the fact that there exist various alternative technologies meant for authentication ranging from; smartcards, biometrics as well as instant passwords, a good number of organizations to some extent continue to rely on traditional passwords; this is projected to continue for sometime. It is therefore imperative that organizations formulate and implement password policies to guide the use of their computers such as the use stronger passwords. Such passwords possess the required level of complexity characterized by the character facets and the length dimensions. This feature makes it hard to hard such passwords.