Tag: account

How To Delete Your Windows Vista Logon Password

April 28, 2007 by Jason

As long as you’re the only user on your PC, deleting your Vista will allow you to completely bypass the logon process. While it isn’t a very security-minded thing to do, removing your Vista might be something to consider if you have problems remembering your .

Follow the easy steps below to the to your Vista logon :

: Easy
Time Required: Deleting your Vista logon usually takes less than a few minutes
Here’s How: Read More»

Create an Account Lockout Policy

March 18, 2007 by Jason

In my last article I showed you how you can protect your against anonymous user attacks by turning on logon so you could see when someone attempts to remotely logon to your . Now I am going to help your increase your level of protection with the Lockout Policy.

Creating an Lockout Policy will protect your by limiting the number of time a remote application or attacker can try to your . This works by automatically locking out your after a designated number of incorrect passwords were entered. Your will remain locked out for a designated period of time before it is automatically unlocked and it can be logged into again. This provides a valuable addition to your security because it can render brute force attacks useless. If you have your lockout set to 4 bad attempts and the lockout duration to 15 minutes, an attacker can try to your a maximum of 16 times per hour. Read More»

Turn on auditing to monitor account attacks

March 08, 2007 by Jason

There is no doubt that all of the security features in Vista will help keep your secure. However, these features become less valuable when they are not turned on by default. One feature, known as user , is not turned on by default. With this feature is turned off, anyone with physical access or remote access to through a hole in your firewall (such an opening for Remote Desktop) can use a brute force attack against your user for as long as they want without getting noticed at all. How? The default audit security policy is configured to not log any logon events, successful or failed.

This allows an attacker to try to hack your accounts for as long as it takes to break in. There are a few ways to protect against this that I am going to go over in my next article about the Lockout policy. But first, it is important to turn on this so that you can see who may be trying to break into your accounts. After you have adjusted the security policy, you will be able to see any attacks including the that they tried to logon with and where the request came from. Read More»

User Account Protection for vista

February 13, 2007 by Jason

It can be used to prevent a beginner user from making changes to their by restricting them from accessing or even saving any changes to critical areas. is also helpful against and other malicious software because it will require the user to consent to the action, before any system changes are made.

is a good feature but sometimes it is necessary to it a little so that it is less annoying for more experienced users. For example, an advanced user may be overwhelmed by the number of pop up authorization they receive. By the settings they can reduce the number of those they see as well as completely disable . Although I do not recommend you completely disable , you can fine tune it to be easier to get along with.
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