The beta 2 release of the Windows Server 2008 R2 Security Baseline — Available Now!

Does your organization spend valuable resources on security issues? Meet your business-critical needs and elevate the security of Windows Server 2008 R2 with this new security baseline. It combines best-practice guidance with the Security Compliance Manager (SCM) tool to help you plan, deploy, and monitor the security of your Windows® Server 2008 R2 servers. Preview this new security baseline, and get the knowledge to effectively deploy and monitor your security baseline for Windows Server 2008 R2 faster and easier.  

The beta 2 release includes the following updates: 

- An updated Security Guide - The Hyper-V role is now included with the baseline 

- A setting pack has been added - What is a setting pack? Since the release of the SCM tool, one of the most frequent requests has been to add all of the available Group Policy settings to the Microsoft security baselines so that you can access them in the SCM tool. While our baselines include hundreds of settings, there are hundreds of additional settings available in Group Policy. In response to this request, the team has created setting packs. The setting packs include the basic information required by the SCM tool to define custom baselines that you can use to create GPO backups, DCM configuration packs, and SCAP content. Learn more about setting packs on the program description page.  

 

What else is the team developing?
The following baselines are in development: Exchange 2007 Office 2010 (with a setting pack) SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 Setting packs for Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 More information about the upcoming beta release dates for these security baselines can be found on the program description page. Learn more about the beta 2 release of the Windows Server 2008 R2 security baseline and other baselines currently in development on the program description page. The beta download packages are formatted for easy import using SCM. You must first join the program and then use the Download link found in the upper left hand corner of this page. You will find detailed instructions about how to import the download file into SCM on the program description page. If you are not already a member of the beta program, click here to join. For members, click here to go to the program description page.