Windows Experience Blog : Windows Live, Security

Best Practices for keeping your Windows Live ID safe

Brandon LeBlanc — Tue, 06 May 2008 04:35:00 GMT

Your Windows Live ID is essentially your online identity for all of the Windows Live services, Xbox Live, Zune and other third party websites (such as Expedia.com) that utilize Windows Live ID. If you're using Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger, your Windows Live ID stores all your contacts and email messages. Your Windows Live ID is definitely something you don't want to have compromised and I've got several pointers - or best practices - in keeping your Windows Live ID safe.

Do not hand out your password! Don't give anyone your password to your Windows Live ID. Handing out your password to anyone is simply asking for trouble. Don't even give out your password to friends or family. I can't imagine a reason why they would need it. Just don't give out your Windows Live ID credentials at all.

Be careful giving your Windows Live credentials on non-Microsoft websites. There are some websites out there that will claim they "require" your Windows Live ID credentials for their service. Some sites use this tactic to gain access to your Windows Live ID.

Fact: Microsoft will only ask for your Windows Live ID credentials on login.live.com and nowhere else!

Use a strong password for your Windows Live ID. Don't use common words or names. Use a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.

Don't use an obvious answer to your secret question. Microsoft provides a list of possible "secret questions" for your account. A secret question is used when you forget your password for your Windows Live ID. Choose a secret question that has an answer that people won't be able to guess (friends, family, etc). The risk you have in using a secret question with an answer your friends might be able to guess is that your friends can try to "hack" your Windows Live ID and have fun with you. Your secret answer must have 5 characters or more and is not case sensitive. Remember to remember your secret answer of course.

Added protection: make your password expire every 72 days. You can login to account.live.com and change your password for your Windows Live ID and configure it to expire every 72 days. I personally don't choose this option rather I change my password every couple weeks on my own.

Neelamadhaba Mahapatro, General Manager for Microsoft's Identity Services (including Windows Live ID) has a post over on the Windows Live Dev Blog explaining Microsoft ongoing to commitment to keeping your Windows Live ID safe and what's being done today to protect Windows Live ID users from phishing.

Get Green and Stay Green with Windows Live OneCare

Brandon LeBlanc — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:36:00 GMT

To help celebrate St. Patrick's Today - the Windows Live OneCare Team is kicking off a brand new campaign: Get Green Stay Green.

The Get Green Stay Green campaign is designed to make sure Windows Live OneCare users are staying "green" - meaning their PC Health Status. Here is Amy Barzdukas, Senior Direct here at Microsoft, to talk about Windows Live OneCare and keeping your PC safe. Amy leads the Windows Live OneCare Team.

Video: Microsoft Windows Live OneCare

I use Windows Live OneCare on my 3 personal home PCs - which are connected together in an OneCare Circle (you can have up to 3 PCs in an OneCare Circle). This lets me manage the PC Health for all my personal PCs. If any of my PCs in my OneCare Circle have their PC Health Status change to yellow or red, I can quickly see which PC it is and why. I can then do what is needed to bring that PC back to green. Keeping all my PCs green is very important to me. If any of my PCs slip into yellow or red - I fix it immediately.

I have a few tips to share from personal experience in keeping my PCs green in my OneCare Circle that you can use to help keep your own PCs green:

Make sure you have your PCs backed up. Windows Live OneCare can backup your PCs automatically to a centralized point on your home network. In my case, I have all my home PCs backed up to my Windows Home Server which Windows Live OneCare detects.
Have your firewall turned on. Windows Live OneCare can maintain and monitor your firewall - protecting your PC from attacks. Even though I'm behind a pretty secure router - I have the firewall turned on for all PCs in my OneCare Circle to add an extra level of protection.
Make sure Protection Plus (malware definitions) are up to date. This ensures your PC is protected from the latest internet garbage.
Do a PC Tune-up! Windows Live OneCare can do regular Tune-ups that can ensure your PC is running at its best.
Make sure your PC has the latest updates from Windows Update. Important updates are key to ensuring your PC stays green.

Again, keeping my home PCs green is very important to me and the above tips help me to do so.

Do you have any tips for Windows Live OneCare and keeping your PC green? I'd love to hear them. Leave a comment below. I would be particularly interested in hearing about how you use Windows Live OneCare to ensure your PCs are backed up.

Users can also visit http://www.getgreenstaygreen.com/ and find out what it takes to keep their PC "green".

Secure your wireless network with Windows Live OneCare 2.0

Brandon LeBlanc — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 04:10:00 GMT

Today, quite a few households have wireless networks that are unsecure - wide open for anyone to connect to. This could be a huge problem especially if PC's in that home are sharing important family files - like photos and documents - that shouldn't be seen by strangers. In Windows Live OneCare 2.0, a new feature is coming that will let users of Windows Live OneCare secure an unsecure wireless network in their home. I decided to give this new feature a try and share my experience.

Once I connected to the unsecure wireless network, I launched Windows Live OneCare and was alerted by Windows Live OneCare that I was on an unsecure wireless network and that it can help me to secure it. I clicked "Turn-on" and started the process. Here is a video demo of me going through the process of securing an unsecure wireless network:

Video: Demo: OneCare Wireless Security

I'd like to take a few moments to elaborate on a few things from the video. First off: the router I used to test this was *not* connected to the Internet. Most users who will use this feature to secure their router will have it connected to the Internet. Once going through the wizard to secure the router with Windows Live OneCare - the user and any other PC's on the home network should be able to access the Internet just fine. There will be no issue securing a router connected to a WAN (WAN being your ISP for Internet access).

To secure your wireless network - you are required to connect via cable (Cat-5) - which is why I needed a Cat-5 cable in my video to proceed with the process of securing my router. This is important as this prevents anyone from connecting to your network wirelessly and using Windows Live OneCare to wipe your wireless networking settings with their own settings. This is what the OneCare Team calls the "proof of ownership" check.

In securing your router - it does not completely wipe out all your settings. The settings that Windows Live OneCare changes during the securing process are the SSID, enabling of WEP security, & setting of the WEP key. After Windows Live OneCare secures your router, you are given instructions on how to set up other PC's on your home network with the new settings Windows Live OneCare enabled on your router.

This is looking to be a very useful and interesting feature for home users who are unfamiliar (and maybe uncomfortable) getting onto their router and configuring it for secure wireless capabilities.

There is a wiki setup over on Channel 9 with informaton on this feature of Windows Live OneCare 2.0 worth checking out as well.

Demo: Windows Live OneCare 2.0

Brandon LeBlanc — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 09:51:00 GMT

Last week Nick announced that the Windows Live OneCare 2.0 Beta Program has begun. Windows Live OneCare 2.0 is the next major release of Microsoft's all-in-one PC protection program. Windows Live OneCare not only protects users from viruses and spyware, but also helps users make sure their important data is backed up and that their PC's are updated with the latest updates from Windows Update.

Chris Overd over at LiveSide briefly touches upon features within Windows Live OneCare 2.0 such as Multi-PC support with your OneCare Circle, Centralized Backup, and the upcoming online photo backup service. However I took some time to record a little demo video showcasing some of Windows Live OneCare 2.0's new features including the new PC startup management tool and the OneCare Circle.

Video: Windows Live OneCare 2.0 Demo

You will notice that in the demo, I didn't touch upon Windows Live OneCare 2.0's new Centralized Backup feature. That is because my PC's on my home network have all their backups managed by Windows Home Server, which was released to manufacturing earlier this week. Windows Live OneCare 2.0 takes into account PC's being backed up to a Windows Home Server. But more on Windows Home Server at a later date.

So just how does Windows Live OneCare 2.0 work with Windows Vista specifically? Windows Live OneCare 2.0 takes advantage of Windows Vista's Network Locations (Private VS Public) and protection levels with its firewall settings. Windows Live OneCare 2.0 ensures protection for your PC depending on your Network Location. Windows Live OneCare 2.0 uses Windows Vista's networking features to help protect the user's PC.

This is just the beginning of the beta program for Windows Live OneCare 2.0 Beta Program. Expect Windows Live OneCare 2.0 to evolve throughout the beta.

Expect this demo video to be the first of many demo videos to come on a variety of topics!