I doubt they are mind readers... (although I can read your mind. LOL)
Careful: You can't always believe what you read... & bear in mind: You may not like what you find... lol!
Do read on!
Alec,
I think your email to them was a little general. You also said you had some questions... but you didn't pose them!
Note, that in the content of my letter, I wrote them I would/could submit any files they may require from it, which WOULD contain the information needed. I don't supply information until it is asked for in situations like these...
E.G.-> One will be, that it knocked me around on the services section!
(Which I can't understand, because I secure their logon entity & disabled ALL the ones they cut me down for, and set them disabled PLUS cutting their logon entity to LOCAL SERVICE (vs. SYSTEM or NETWORK SERVICE even, since local service is the weakest of the 3, in case somehow, an interloper/virus/malware/spyware turned them on, like in the event of a weakness/hole found in them - this? HAPPENS!))
There are others, plenty of them, in the post we initially discussed this in, but that would only be a TINY fraction of what I wish to discuss w/ they @ BELARC.
Many others as well. In fact, TOO many to put into that letter... I supply when asked for, & not before typically.
I also suspect that one's score COULD be raised by logging in as a LIMITED user (such as something like GUEST account, which I disable, but not sure... I note this above as an experiment to perform).
I'm going to do 2 things now:
1./ Find the CIS recommendations... since BELARC scores against the CIS rules
There is that, an ENTIRE LISTING of the sources used to develop the product by... pretty respected ones too. Still, per the SINGLE example above I posted & I have plenty of others it cut me down for? I question it, severely.
2./ I'll run in guest mode just to check results
****
Right... I wonder if it covers that part (it does not account for firewalls or NAT routers (true firewalling ones like mine even, not just NAT IP address assignments, which is NOT as strong)))
Not that their sources are "Bad", they're not... I typically do NOT operate on "proofs" other provide, not @ first... I operate on MY understanding of this stuff, & then later, do what I am doing now - inquiring...
However, how BELARC's applying them, per their analysis, may be incorrect in some cases... again, or I am!
... & I am out to help improve that, in either event, in case the folks @ belarc are in error... or, conversely, I am.
Either way? Everybody wins...
ALSO - Some things, BELARC ADVISOR doubtless can't account for... too new of attack vectors, or less obvious ones (such as what custom adbanner HOSTS files can secure you against, or turning off javascript/java & ActiveX/ActiveScripting in your webbrowsers on the public internet as well, using them ONLY if a site loses functionality doing so, & it is one that you need to access for whatever reasons).
P.S. I turned off Terminal Services some months ago on my laptop. And today I discovered why my infrared wasn't working... needs TS for the infrared service to work.
Odd it would require that... but, if it does, it does. Turn it back on... other things need it as well, like RDP (remote desktop) stuff iirc...
Only turn off services for security, if you ABSOLUTELY do not need them... sometimes, you turn this up later on (I did for PerfectDisk in fact... it needs DCOM Process Launcher started for example).
I do wish Windows would somehow make this information - and dependencies - more accessible to NON-PROFESSIONALS.
If infrared tools need it? It SHOULD be listed in each services DEPENDENCIES tab... there is that you know!
(I take it wasn't for this infrared service?)
APK