Instructions

Submit a thread of at least 300 words that  completely answers the questions. In addition to the  thread, you must also reply to at least 2 other threads.  Each reply must be at least 100 words. Must use complete  paragraphs, proper APA formatting, and cite information that is not  his/her own.

Thread

The United States Government Configuration Baseline (USGCB) evolved from  the Federal Desktop Core Configuration mandate and is a government-wide  initiative to maintain and properly update security settings  (http://usgcb.nist.gov). Research and summarize at least 2 recent  security patches that relate to your current operating system. In a  separate paragraph, do you feel these security patches help secure your  computer? Why? Defend your response.

Replies

Reply to each thread. 100 words minimum each response.

Reply #1

“May there be peace within your walls and security within  your citadels!”(Psalm 122:7, NIV), God is our source of security, he has  a plan of attack, as well as watching over us to make sure nothing  happens that where we cant come back from. “The purpose of the United  States Government Configuration Baseline (USGCB) initiative is to create  security configuration baselines for Information Technology products  widely deployed across the federal agencies”(COMPUTER  SECURITY RESOURCE CENTER, & NIST, 2018).  By implementing this  tool, it has improved security configuration, as well as strength  security baselines as a whole. As good as these baselines are, patches  are extremely necessary to maintain the level of security needed with  the ever advancing technology. Windows, my current operating system  recently came out with new patches updating several features in their  security sections. two of which being Windows Defender ATP and  BitLocker. Windows Defender ATP, or advanced threat protection was  enhanced with threat analytics as well as custom detection. Threat  analytics send reports of possible threats which then is sent to a team  to determine the actions that need to be taken. Custom detection, in  which you can create a query you specifically want to monitor in order  to take necessary steps to improve prevention of attacks.  Next BitLocker, this is a program that can be used to encrypt your  device in hopes to prevent potential future attacks. 

With  these security patches recently added by windows, I feel as though more  steps have been taken to increase and improve the security on our  operating systems. It guarantees that improvements are being made, and  that these security professionals are always at work to better their  systems. With constant updates, windows operating system user can be  assured that their devices have systems that are up to date and ready to  defend possible threats. 

“You will be secure, because there is hope; you will look about you and take your rest in safety”(Job 11:18, NIV)

Reply #2

 The United States Government Baseline  was developed to supply federal agencies with direction in the best ways  to configure information security. As stated by Rouse, the goal of  USGCB is to standardize the configuration setting in IT, lower costs,  improve effectiveness and strengthen system procedures to find existing  security threats and those that have not been discovered yet. There are  several different MacOS High Sierra 10.13.6 security updates that have  happened recently. The first one I want to talk about is ATS. The  description says it addressed a corruption issue with improved input  validation. The impact before the security update was “A malicious  application may be able to elevate privileges” (Apple Support). The  second one is EFI. The description says an issue with configuration was  addressed and improvement was made with memory handling. The impact  before the security update was “an application may be able to execute  arbitrary code with system privileges” (Apple Support).

            Both of these security  patches have definitely helped secure my operating system. The ATS  security update helped secure my operating system because if I were to  click on an application or email and download a link that I did not know  was malicious, without this patch the application would be able to  hijack my system unknowing effectively locking me out of my computer and  potentially holding it for ransom. With this patch it prevents this  scenario. With EFI, this patch would also very much help me. In the  event an application obtained system privileges through arbitrary code  it could change my passwords and lock me out. With the EFI patch this  will now be prevented. Proverbs 24:3-4 tells us, “By wisdom a house is  built, and through understanding it is established” (NIV). We have to  look at our operating systems as a house. We must make sure we are  consistently updating our operating systems to keep out intruders and  understand what we need to do to make this happen.

Apple Support. Retrieved March 5, 2019 from: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209193

Rouse, Margaret. USGCB (United States Government Configuration Baseline): TechTarget.