Three Defenses to a Secure System: Virus Scanning, Applying Patches and System Monitoring

The purpose of this paper is to share with other system administrators the 'how to' on tools that can be used for basic security configuration. Most of the documentation on securing windows systems that I initially found was very general in terms. For example apply patches to the operating system. That is a great idea but how to get started and use available tools to streamline the process is just as important. After some research I have found that Microsoft has specific tools to determine what patches you need and how to apply them a bit more streamlined and automatic using tools to begin the layers of security in a Windows environment. This document describes issues to consider when setting up virus scanning software using Microsoft tools to make patching operating systems easier and a few specific tools that you can use to benchmark or monitor your operating system that might help you spot those abnormalities that should not be there.