Good Practice #1: Default Deny

Let’s face it. Security had long been an issue in the Windows platform. This is partly because it had been implementing the dumbest practice in security: Default Permit.

During the last few days I’ve been trying several anti-virus and anti-spyware solutions in the market. And well, nothing really works. Why? Because they’re enumerating badness. Instead of allowing only legitimate applications to run, it just blocks all known viruses and spywares.

Three days ago, I stumbled upon this little freeware from Horizon Datasys, Inc. called Exe Lockdown. Basically, the idea behind it is to deny any executable to execute unless explicitly permitted. Default deny.

Now, this is how real programmers do it. Everything you’ll ever need is in this window. One window to do get the job done plus a really small footprint, what else can you ask for?

And this is Exe LockDown in action:

When you choose to allow a program, you will be prompted for a password:

Of course it will not allow you to do some crazy things like disable access to c:\windows for pretty obvious reasons but it does allow you to block access to c:\windows\temp.

Amazing, isn’t it, how such a small freeware can accomplish what those over priced AV solutions failed to accomplish? I guess I’ll give Exe LockDown five stars out of five. 😀