Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA)

Here is another free handy dandy tool I stumbled upon today. It is from Microsoft and is called the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA). It can be downloaded here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/cc184923

Go to that link and click on the blue text just under Download Now in the upper right corner of the window. On the next window click on Download to the right of the version you want. There are two English versions, one for 64 bit operating systems and the other, labeled as for X86, is for 32 bit systems.

This tool is really meant for organizations and their tech support people, but I found it was very much worthwhile for me. After the download run the program to install MBSA and after the install run it. I just took all of the defaults on the first screen and did not change a thing.

Two issues were found on my XP laptop. One, they have finally gotten me to leave good old IE6 behind and upgrade to IE8. I have been very stubborn and have resisted this change for a long time now, but there are security issues with the older version that really I should not be risking, so I installed IE8. The second issue found was that the GUEST account was enabled on my machine. This is viewed as a security exposure, and I have never even thought about it before. Also, I never knew that the GUEST account could be disabled, but it can, and I have done just that following the instructions given.

After making these 2 changes and on the third try, MBSA gave me a clean bill of health as shown here.

Security assessment:
Strong Security (The selected checks were passed.)
Computer name: HOME\ACERTRAVELMATE
Security report name: HOME - ACERTRAVELMATE (1-6-2011 9-57 AM)
Scan date: 1/6/2011 9:57 AM