White House Specifies And Mandates Secure Windows

twitter writes "The Register is reporting on an effort to bring order to the wild world of Windows patching, at least in the US Federal Government. The White House has issued a directive to federal CIOs throughout the country, issuing a call for all new PCs to use a 'common secure configuration.' 'Registry settings and which services would be turned on or off by default [are specified and] the directive calls for suppliers (integrators and software vendors) to certify that the products they supply operate effectively using these more secure configurations. "No Vista application will be able to be sold to federal agencies if the application does not run on the secure version of Vista," explained Alan Paller, director of research at The SANS Institute.'"

Security

[Mateo_LeFou]

Well, if there's one White House that I think might be experts on Security, it's this one

From TFA...

[Steve--Balllmer]

""No Vista application will be able to be sold to federal agencies if the application does not run on the secure version of Vista,"

I just wanted to let you know all of those people who purchased "Unsecured Version" of Vista can upgrade to the "Secure Version" for a fee, when it is released (probably in late 2009-early 2010).

Sincerely,
Steve "Monkeyman" Ballmer

And this is unusual why?

[Itninja]

No Vista application will be able to be sold to federal agencies

What!!?? You mean that my local Social Security office will not be upgrading?

I was there a few weeks ago and they all were using what looked like Windows 98 still. I don't think 'Vista' and 'federal agency' will be in the same sentence again for many, many years.

Re:Yikes!

[Trona Andy]

You have it all wrong. This is going to work because the Decider has said it has to work. Case closed, just like the wonderful success we're having making Baghdad a bastion of stability and tolerance for political, religious and cultural difference. You go, George!

Re:HAHAAH

[AP2k]

Where is the "Beyond Overrated" or "Stupid" mod tags when you need them?

You might need this:

while(1){
      printf("HA");}

Where did March go?

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it April 1st already?

Honesty

[DoofusOfDeath]

White House Specifies And Mandates Secure Windows

Look, if they just don't want to use Windows why can't they say so???

Mandates secure windows....

[gmuslera]

what next in the agenda? Mandate water to flow upwards? Ice to burn things? Pigs to fly?

There are rumors that such things exist, in very special cases, but is easier to see pigs fly than to see a secure windows machine.

Re:That;'s one way to look at it.

[ColdWetDog]

You may also minimize the work your users can do, on Windoze at least.

You're talking about the Federal Government here, I'm not sure that is at all a relevant concern. At worst, it's a feature, not a bug.

Re:Heh

[jac89]

Get bigger eggs, then they wont be able to fit through the holes. Goose eggs would do, or maybe ostrich.

Re:Monoculture Worries.

[FlopEJoe]

The net result will be identically configured computers with fewer applications

That's a Mac, right?

Re:Heh

[FrankNputer]

Show me a basket that doesn't have holes, and I'll show you a bowl.

Re:Heh

[morcego]

Show me a bowl that doesn't have a hole, and I'll show you a sphere.