Physical Security | Logging On and Off | Locking a WorkStation | Disabling File and Print Sharing
Protecting a Local Machine
In this section, we will discuss how to protect your machine locally. Many attacks on your machine will attempt to make the machine believe the attacker is a local user. By completing the steps below, you can ensure that the great majority of these attacks will fail:
- Make sure that your computer is physically secure.
- Log off or lock your workstation when away from your desk.
- Secure the local administrator account.
- Use a non-administrative account for everyday use.
- Disable File and Print Sharing.
Physical Security
Some guidelines to make sure your computer system is protected include:
- Keeping any computer containing sensitive information behind a locked door.
- Taking extra precautions to protect portable computers and hand-held devices. You may consider using a radio-controlled alarm, which sounds an alert if you and your notebook carrying case are unexpectedly separated.
- Using external locks to physically bolt computers to desks or hooking computers to a security system.
- Watching out for “shoulder surfers” who try to steal passwords by watching your fingers as you log on.
Logging On and Off
Windows is generally used in a networked environment, but you do not have to be connected to a network domain to run it. You might have Windows installed on a laptop computer that you use both at the office and at home. When you log on to a computer that has been, but is no longer, connected to a network domain, you log on in the ordinary manner. Your information is validated against information that was stored on the computer the last time you logged on to the domain.
Pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del (known as the secure attention sequence) to log on or off ensures that your password remains secure because it prevents programs called Trojan horses, which might have been planted on your system by hackers, from capturing your user account name and password. A user with administrative privileges can change this requirement, but making this change is not recommended.
Locking a Workstation
Each time you leave your computer, either at your desk or in a computer lab, the computer is vulnerable. Therefore, it is always a good idea to log out or lock your computer before leaving it, even if you plan to be away for just a few minutes. When locking your computer, any open applications, files, and folders remain open, but you can only continue working after entering your user password. To lock the workstation, press Ctrl + Alt + Del, and then click Lock Computer. To unlock the computer, press Ctrl + Alt + Del again and enter your user password.
Note: A recommended practice at Indiana University is to log out rather than locking your workstation for long periods of time such as overnight or weekends.
Using a password-protected screen saver is another way to protect your computer from prying eyes when you are away from your desk.
Click the screenshot below to see the simulation for setting your screen saver to lock the system upon waking.
Windows XP
Windows Vista
Windows 7
Disabling File and Print Sharing
As a good practice and added precaution, you should always disable file and print sharing on your local computer unless you want other users to share or have access to resources on your machine, such as files and printers.
By default, Windows 7 has File and Print sharing disabled.
Note: Check with your LSP before enabling or disabling File and Print Sharing. Some LSPs may want File and Print Sharing enabled in order to update departmental machines, etc.
Click the screenshot below to see the simulation for Disabling File and Print Sharing.
Windows XP
Windows Vista
Windows 7
