Windows 8 Security Improvements Carry Caveats

Many new Windows 8 security features were previously available standalone, or require businesses to buy in to Microsofts server and cloud vision.

6 Reasons To Want Windows 8 Ultrabooks (click image for larger view and for slideshow)
Should businesses upgrade to Windows 8?
The benefits on offer include a
raft of security improvements
, such as Secure Boot, which uses the BIOS replacement known as Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) to make it difficult for rootkits to gain a foothold. In addition, anti-malware software comes built in and loads early, and improvements to
ASLR and DEP
mitigation technologies help block more types of exploits.
But the Windows 8 security improvements carry caveats. For starters, some remain relatively untested. Others, such as improved access controls, require using Windows Server 2012 as well, or else Microsofts own cloud-based storage system. As that suggests, realizing all of the advertised security benefits might require additional investments.
[ Read
Windows 8: Why I Wont Upgrade
. ]
Here are five related facts to help businesses weigh a move to Windows 8:
1. DirectAccess VPN Now IPv4-Compatible.
Hands down, one of the biggest security improvements is DirectAccess VPN, which can be configured to force a Windows 8 system to
use a VPN
whenever its not connected to a corporate network; for example, when a user is logging on via a cafe, airport lounge, or
hotel
, said Chester Wisniewski, a senior security advisor at Sophos Canada, speaking by phone.
When initially launched with Windows 7, DirectAccess only worked with IPv6. Now, however, its been made to work with IPv4 too. The idea of DirectAccess being automatic no matter what youre doing -- if youre not connecting to the corporate network -- is brilliant, its what every VPN for the last 20 years should have been doing, but nobody ... has done that, he said.
2. Bevy Of Minor Improvements.
Overall, however, few of the security improvements in Windows 8 are game changing. Secure Boot is the biggest change, that took a big move, and is the standout thing theyve done, said Wisniewski. Still, it only works with latest-generation PC hardware that has UEFI built in, meaning that any business that upgrades its operating system, but not its hardware, wont yet benefit.
Beyond Secure Boot, the rest of it is pretty iterative, Wisniewski said, pointing in particular to the built-in anti-malware and
better BitLocker
.
3. Modern UI Loses Important Security Cues.
Windows 8 also sports a new,
tablet-focused
user interface. With the radical user interface changes, you may lose, or you may gain, said Wisniewski. Notably, the interface can omit key details that help keep users secure, for example in Internet Explorer. With IE10, in the Modern user interface--or Metro UI, as it was called--you dont see the location bar or padlock when youre surfing. By default, your browsing is in full-screen mode, he said. So you lose that context; you no longer have an idea that youre being phished, because you can no longer see that the URL is badguy.ru.
This issue isnt limited to Windows 8. If youre on an iPad, you cant see the link youre going to until you click on it, he said. To me, with phones and tablets, you lose some of the context thats important, and unfortunately Windows 8 has undone that as well.
4. Windows To Go, With Cloud Support.
Windows 8 -- enterprise edition only -- adds the ability to store a whole, bootable version of a users Windows 8 environment on a USB key. The cool part of it is that it blocks access to all the local media. So if you had an infected machine at a library, airport, or hotel, and plugged in your Windows 8 media stick and turned it on, even if youre infected to tarnation [on the machine], youre good to go, said Wisniewski.
But theres a caveat: Users either need to have updated their USB stick immediately before using it, or else store any documents they want to retrieve on
Microsoft SkyDrive
. To make Windows To Go useful, you have to embrace the whole Microsoft cloud model, said Wisniewski.
5. SmartScreen Borrows Apple Business Plan.
Microsoft has extended the SmartScreen technology it introduced with IE9 -- to check online file downloads against a known-bad list of malicious files, and offer related warnings -- to the operating system. Now, Windows 8 checks any application a user wants to install to see if its been digitally signed and can be trusted.
Although this can have security upsides, its also a business play: Like Apple, Microsoft would prefer that users purchase approved -- and theoretically, trustworthy -- applications via its
Windows Store
, or else from the employees corporate app store.
What Microsoft wants is [for] you to buy everything from the Microsoft Store, said Wisniewski. The only prompt is, do you want to pay $3.99? The question, accordingly, is whether Microsoft can offer an
app store thats as secure
as the one Apple provides, while simultaneously blocking malware from pretending to be the app store. I think [Microsoft] will probably do a pretty darn good job of it, but its going to be six months before we can really judge that, he said.
Upgrading isnt the easy decision that Win 7 was. We take a close look at Server 2012, changes to mobility and security, and more in the new
Here Comes Windows 8
issue of InformationWeek. Also in this issue: Why you should have the difficult conversations about the value of OS and PC upgrades before discussing Windows 8. (Free registration required.)

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Windows 8 Security Improvements Carry Caveats