When I was growing up in West Lafayette, my parents taught
me three things that will never change in my life: death, taxes, and getting m undergrad degree
from Purdue. So after high school, I did
attend Purdue, and just like a lot of other college undergrads, I switched my
major around a number of times until I got into Age Econ.
Then, I was taught one more thing by professors in that
program that was going to be an almost guarantee: You will be using Windows from Microsoft for
the rest of your life.
So far, the have been correct. Windows 3.1 first came out when I was at
Purdue, and to be honest, I knew hardly anything about computers at that point
in time. I was totally blown away by
that OS, and especially how easy it was to print my resume on a laser
printer. So, I continued using that
until I graduated, and even after.
When I hit my grad days at Southern Illinois University,
Windows was never heard of. All we had to use in in the Ag Econ department was
pretty much Word Perfect, and Lotus 1-2-2 for any spreadsheet apps. Nothing like the glory of Windows 3.1 of
course, but it was still good enough to get the job done.
The turning point came when I went to Bowling Green State
University to get my MBA. That is where
I got my kick into computers, as I was an MIS major. During this time frame,
Windows ’95 came out, and it totally blew everybody away once again.
Also, Windows NT was making its debut, and in my MIS
classes, any group project or case study we did had to center around NT.
Then, after I graduated, we had the .com craze. Just about
every vendor was getting pumped, even including Microsoft. Every .com venture had to have a Windows
network topology running NT, and Oracle as the backend (not too many people
were hip about using SQL Server back then).
Then this all collapsed, and Windows 2000 came out, both the
personal and server editions. That is
where I got my first introduction to Active Directory.
So fast forward now the last 20 years, and now we have
Windows 10 as the primary OS being used around the world. At the time, there was talk and rumor that
this would be the last OS from Microsoft.
Then one day, out of the blue, the announcement came that Windows 11 was
soon to be released.
I went “Huh???” But
unlike the other OS’s, this one is absolutely free to upgrade to, provided that
you meet the minimum requirements, from the standpoint of hardware.
I have written articles recently on some of the key
differences between Windows 10 and Windows 11, and I will address them in a
future blog. But since my passion is
Cyber, we will explore now as to how Windows 11 is different from this
standpoint. Here are some key areas:
*First, the Windows 11 OS has been carefully crafted to
implement what is known as the “Zero Trust Framework”. Essentially, your business is doing away with
Perimeter Security, and is now focusing on segmenting out your IT and Network
Infrastructure into different layers, each with its own set of Multifactor
Authentication (MFA) protocols. In the
end, nobody can be trusted, even your long-term employees. Does sound it sound harsh? It is, but apparently it seems to be working.
*The implementation of a new kind of processor (this is
assuming that you are buying a brand-new laptop with Windows 11 already
installed onto it). This is known as the
“Microsoft Pluton”.
*There is now a Smart App Control that allows the end user
to prevent any form of unauthorized application from running;
*There is a control which has the default features enabled
to prevent the heisting of your device, creating secure guest accounts for end
users and authenticating them;
*The Pluton processor also implements what is known as the
“Trusted Platform Module”, or TPM for short.
This has been designed in such a way so that any information or data (also
known as “artifacts”) is further protected from the Cyberattacker;
*Further, Microsoft has made it so that the use of a TPM is
now a baseline security requirement.
This simply means that if your existing computer or wireless device does
not have it, you will not be able to run Windows 11 on it;
*The TPM can also be viewed as an add on to the CPU, it is
not actually a separate component by itself.
This means that if you are running Windows 11, any software patches or
upgrades that are installed, will also be automatically transmitted to the TPM
if it is applicable to it;
*If any dedicated firmware updates have to be made to the
TPM, the IT Security team can do it seamlessly through the Windows Update
feature from a central location. The
advantage here is that each computer or wireless device will not have to be
updated separately;
*There is also known what is the “Smart App Control”. Unlike the previous versions of the Windows
OSs, the use of AI and ML are being used for the first time here. For example, if there are any new apps that
are being installed, and they are deemed to be suspicious, Windows 11 will
prevent the download from happening, or even block the use of the application
all together. Also, any scripts that are
being accessed from the Internet (most notably those of the Java Script) will
be carefully examined and blocked, if they are deemed to be malicious in
nature;
*There will also be what is known as the as the
Hypervisor-Protected Code Integrity, also known as the “HVCI” for short. This is primarily designed to ensure that the
drivers that are used to boot up the Windows 11 OS are free from any malware or
malicious code.
My Thought On This:
The security features detailed in this blog is jus an
overview. If you want to read up more about
it, click on the link below:
In the end, Windows 11 has also been primarily designed to
cater to the needs of the Remote Workforce – which is now going to become a permanent
fixture in the American culture. The
next question to eb asked is if you should upgrade to Windows 11 right
away?
For right now, the consensus seems to be that of a big
“NO!!!”. The primary reason for this is
that if you upgrade to it, you could even lose some of the functionality that
you already have in Windows 10.
The suggestion here so far is if your heart is absolutely
set on having Windows 11, have the Geek Squad do it for you, or simply buy a
new device that has Windows 11 already installed onto it.
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