
Microsoft Offers Secure Windows … But Only to the Government - vaksel
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/04/air-force-windows/
======
briansmith
It seems that Microsoft merely provided the Air Force with standard Windows,
pre-configured with a template according to their specifications. If somebody
has a pointer to some reference that indicates that Microsoft provided them
with a tweaked version of Windows (not just tweaked configuration templates),
please give us a pointer to it.

Microsoft already provides similar pre-built configuration templates on its
website for everybody to download. For example, when it gets security
certifications, it distributes the templates it used for the certifications.
Other security-related organizations also provide their own recommended
templates along with documents explaining them setting-by-setting. Using
(tweaked) versions of those templates has been standard practice for any
professional Windows network administrator since at least Windows 2000.

[edit: I am pretty sure that we can get the government's standard templates
available too. I know the NSA has made some available for a long time now, for
example.]

