Microsoft Security Tools

Microsoft has created a page where they post all their security tools, both free and commercial.  The age and usefulness of some of these tools will vary depending on your environment (e.g. a home vs. an enterprise network). Although, what I really find handy about this page is that all the tools are grouped together in one place.

Below is a brief list of some of the tools that are available for download:

• Microsoft Security Assessment Tool (MSAT): Helps assess weaknesses in an organization’s IT security environment.
• Microsoft Security Compliance Manager: Provides security configuration recommendations from Microsoft.
• Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA): Scans on your network for missing security updates and common security mis-configurations.
• File Checksum Integrity Verifier: A command-line tool that computes MD5 or SHA-1 cryptographic hash values for files.  This is useful for validating a file's integrity.
• PortQry: This command-line utility helps troubleshoot TCP/IP connectivity issues in Windows.

Check out the site to see all the tools.