 | Best regards,
Tim Rains, Director, Product Management, Microsoft Trustworthy Computing
Follow the Microsoft Security Response team on Twitter @MSFTSecResponse for the latest information on the threat landscape.
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Microsoft Security Compliance Manager Version 2 (SCM 2) Now Available
Security Compliance Manager 2 provides ready-to-deploy policies and Desired Configuration Manager (DCM) configuration packs that are tested and fully supported. The product baselines included in the tool are based on Microsoft Security Guide recommendations and industry best practices, allowing you to manage configuration drift, address compliance requirements, and reduce security threats.
| Microsoft Malware Protection Center Threat Report - Poison Ivy
This Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC) Threat Report provides an overview of the Win32/Poison (Poison Ivy) family of malware. Poison Ivy is a malware family whose primary objective is to allow complete control of infected computers in corporate environments. This report examines the background and functionality of Poison Ivy and provides telemetry data and analysis covering the year 2011 until publication. It also discusses how the threat is detected and removed by Microsoft antimalware products and services.
| Security Practices and the Consumerization of IT
Encrypting corporate data and/or segregating corporate data from personal data that might cohabitate on computing devices are becoming aspirational goals for many organizations. Learn why establishing acceptable use policies and increasing awareness of those policies and why good data hygiene is critical, are very effective practices whether your workforce is using mobile devices or desktop PCs.
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Security Tip of the Month: Simple Security Recommendations When Using Hyper-V
As more small to midsize companies consider virtualization solutions, questions about security and virtualization inevitably arise. Microsoft has a few articles on TechNet that outline some of the key aspects of a secure deployment of the Hyper-V virtualization technology, a feature of Windows Server 2008 R2. To complement the guidelines offered in "Planning for Hyper-V Security," Microsoft IT Evangelist Howard Wong offers some additional thoughts and security considerations around Hyper-V.
| Planning for Hyper-V Security
Overall, you should secure the virtual machines running on the virtualization server according to your procedures for securing that kind of server or workload. This document provides best practices to help improve the security of your Windows Server 2008 servers running Hyper-V.
| Hyper-V Security Guide
Find instructions and recommendations to help strengthen the security of computers running the Hyper-V role on Windows Server 2008. This guide covers three core topics: hardening Hyper-V, delegating virtual machine management, and protecting virtual machines.
| Security Best Practices for Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) Operations
Get best practices you can follow to help maintain security when preparing, building, testing, deploying, and managing MED-V workspaces.
| Authentication of MED-V End Users
Get best practices to follow to help maintain security when verifying the identity of MED-V end users.
| Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) Security Guide
Familiarize yourself with important information about deployment decisions that can affect the security of your system. This guide provides you with the necessary steps to configure Microsoft App-V security settings to enhance the security of your environment based on the recommendations presented in the downloadable App-V Security Best Practices paper. For those security settings that are specific to Windows, but not to App-V, this guide also offers appropriate links to more information.
| Using Smart Cards in Windows Virtual PC
Learn how you can use smartcards in any virtual machine (VM) created using Windows Virtual PC on Windows 7, just as you use smartcards on Windows 7. While each type of smartcard device comes with its own device driver software, that will need to be installed in the operating system (OS) on which the smartcard reader is being used, smartcards can be shared between the host OS (Windows 7) and the VM, or can be assigned exclusively to VMs.
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Virtualization: Security Best Practices
By Harry L. Waldron, Microsoft MVP – Enterprise Security
Virtual resources must be safeguarded using the same principles used to keep Windows and Windows Server secure. Administrators must promptly apply security maintenance to all software components and help ensure the environment is restricted from unauthorized users. Strong corporate policies and security awareness help promote the user's role in the process as well. Read this article for key best practices to help you safeguard your virtual information resources.
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How to Improve Network Security with Microsoft Solutions
By Rodrigo Immaginario, Microsoft MVP – Enterprise Security: Engineering
Safeguarding network data and systems is one of the greatest challenges for IT professionals who work in the area of security. Meeting the demands of enterprises is essential. Therefore, it is important to know who your users are and what your network assets are—particularly since remote access, wireless networks, different sites and distributed systems are a reality. Learn how to leverage supported Microsoft technologies to help reduce security risks in your environment.
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Deploy a Private Cloud Infrastructure Using Virtualization
Cloud computing creates new challenges for IT pros, as well as powerful new capabilities that can cut costs while delivering new value. Find tools, technical articles, and other resources to help you leverage Hyper-V, System Center Virtual Machine Manager and Operations Manager to bring cloud architecture agility to your datacenters.
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Critical: Important: Moderate: Security Bulletin Overview for November 2011 | | | | | | |  | | ADDITIONAL SECURITY RESOURCES
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November's Security Newsletter is here! The theme of this month's newsletter is secure virtualization. Microsoft Desktop Virtualization is just the thing that many enterprise customers need. It can help resolve application compatibility issues and provide seamless access to older applications while running them on modern Windows 7-based systems with modern browsers. However, just as a physical desktop or server needs to be secured, so do virtual machines and virtual switches. 
