Draft Guidance on Improving Security of Home Computers

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is  looking for comments on new guidelines aimed at helping end-users, in  particular telecommuting federal employees, improve the security of their  personally owned desktop and laptop computers that run Windows XP Home Edition  in a small office or home office environment. Like their larger office  counterparts, home computers increasingly are the target of attackers looking  to damage or disrupt files, steal identities or commit fraud. Guidance for  Securing Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition: A NIST Security Configuration  Checklist (Special Publication 800-69) contains detailed step-by-step  directions for securing Windows XP Home Edition computers. It explains the need to use a combination of  security protections, such as antivirus and antispyware software, a personal  firewall, limited user accounts and automatic software updates. It also  emphasizes the importance of performing regular backups to ensure that data are  available after an attack against the computer, a hardware failure or human  error. The draft publication is  available at http://csrc.nist.gov/itsec/guidance_WinXP_Home.html. Comments should  be submitted by Aug. 31, 2006, to itsec@nist.gov with "Comments SP800-69/XPHome" in the subject line.