Also available is the Threats and Countermeasures Guide for Windows 2003 and XP. This 12 chapter guide details the different threats, potential countermeasures, and the potential impact of configuring various security settings that can be configured on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and XP.

Finally, Windows 2000 users can access a 6 chapter Windows 2000 Security Hardening Guide designed to provide generic guidance for securing a wide range of system types, without trading off basic operating system functionality. "The recommendations in this guide were generally chosen to safely allow Microsoft customers to deploy the recommended settings on existing Windows 2000 systems, not just on newly-built systems," the company notes in the documentation. "We have also reviewed the default permissions on Windows Server 20003 and recommended those permissions here where they did not break existing Windows 2000 Server services."

Last month, I reported that Microsoft would unleash an unprecedented amount of free online documentation for Windows 2003, phased in and updated over time. In addition to the security guides mentioned above, Microsoft has also delivered deployment, NT migration, and planning and architecture reference material related to Windows 2003.

Windows Server 2003 Security Guide

Threats and Countermeasures: Security Settings in Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP

Windows 2000 Security Hardening Guide