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NSA Advises Upgrade To Windows 7

Posted by timothy on from the even-with-the-new-openbsd dept.

An anonymous reader writes "In a document available from the NSA (warning, PDF file), that organisation advises users to upgrade to Windows 7 as part of their Best Practice for Securing a Home Network. No mention of BSD or Linux so I guess the Slashdot crowd will just have to bite the bullet and change operating systems if they want to be really secure."

4 of 377 comments (clear)

  1. NSA by 0123456 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The NSA have an excellent guide for securing Linux systems (particularly Redhat, but much is applicable to all distros), so they're hardly Windows-centric.

  2. RTFA by Stormy+Dragon · · Score: 3, Informative

    No, the NSA recommends that you use a "modern OS" and then gives Windows Vista and Windows 7 as examples. Nothing suggests they consider these the only modern OS's in existence.

  3. Bad summary by Wyatt+Earp · · Score: 5, Informative

    I guess no one involved in green lighting this read the PDF.

    The NSA pamphlet was only for Windows and Mac users, it didn't mention migrating to LINUX or BSD because it wasn't about alternative OSes, just what current users should go to.

    They have a bunch of these fact sheets, shocking the securing iPhones and iPads one doesn't talk about migrating to Android or Win 7.
    http://www.nsa.gov/ia/guidance/security_configuration_guides/fact_sheets.shtml

  4. Re:Misleading summary by DurendalMac · · Score: 1, Informative

    O RLY? I've been running Windows 7 for over a year now on one computer and have used it quite a bit. I've had to pull a handful of tracking cookies out with Malwarebytes and that's about it. How long is that matter of time, anyway?

    Newsflash: Windows 7 is a great deal more secure than XP. I doubt we'll EVER see the petri dish days of the early XP service packs again.