Administering User Accounts in C#

Generating Quick Response Code in C# Administering User Accounts

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Smart card logon is supported for Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003. To imple ment smart cards, you must deploy an enterprise certification authority rather than a stand-alone or third-party certification authority to support smart card logon to Windows Server 2003 domains. Windows Server 2003 supports industry standard Per sonal Computer/Smart Card (PC/SC) compliant smart cards and readers and provides drivers for commercially available plug and play smart card readers. Windows Server 2003 does not support non-PC/SC-compliant or non plug and play smart card readers. Some manufacturers might provide drivers for non plug and play smart card readers that work with Windows Server 2003; however, it is recommended that you purchase only plug and play PC/SC-compliant smart card readers. The cost of administering a smart card program depends on several factors, including:

The number of users enrolled in the smart card program and their location. Your organization s practices for issuing smart cards to users, including the requirements for verifying user identities. For example, will you require users to simply present a valid personal identification card or will you require a background investigation Your policies affect the level of security provided as well as the actual cost. Your organization s practices for users who lose or misplace their smart cards. For example, will you issue temporary smart cards, authorize temporary alternate logon to the network, or make users go home to retrieve their smart cards Your policies affect how much worker time is lost and how much help desk support is needed.

Your smart card authentication strategy must describe the network logon and authen tication methods you use, including:

In addition to smart cards, third-party vendors offer a variety of security products to provide two-factor authentication, such as security tokens and biometric accessories. These accessories use extensible features of the Windows Server 2003 graphical logon user interface to provide alternate methods of user authentication.

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The following questions are intended to reinforce key information presented in this lesson. If you are unable to answer a question, review the lesson and then try the ques tion again. Answers to the questions can be found in the Questions and Answers sec tion at the end of this chapter. 1. Where are domain user accounts created

4. What is the purpose of the Guest account What is the default condition of the Guest account

5. Which of the following are characteristics of a strong password a. Is at least seven characters long b. Contains your user name c. Contains keyboard symbols d. Contains numerals e. Contains a dictionary word

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Windows Server 2003 provides three types of user accounts: local user accounts, domain user accounts, and built-in user accounts. Local user accounts are stored only in a computer s local security database. Domain user accounts are stored in Active Directory and replicated to all domain controllers in a domain. Built-in user accounts are created automatically by Windows Server 2003 for the purpose of performing administrative tasks or to gain access to network resources. The user account naming convention you adopt establishes how users are identi fied in the domain. A consistent user account naming convention helps you and your users remember user logon names and locate them in lists. To protect access to the domain or a computer, every user account should have a strong password. A strong password is a password that provides an effective defense against unauthorized access to a resource. A strong password is at least seven characters long, does not contain all or part of the users account name, and contains at least three of the four following categories of characters: uppercase characters, lowercase characters, base 10 digits, and symbols found on the keyboard (such as !, @, #). A smart card is a credit card-sized device that is used with a PIN number to enable certificate-based authentication and single sign-on to the enterprise. Smart cards securely store certificates, public and private keys, passwords, and other types of personal information. Deploying and maintaining a smart card program requires additional overhead, including the configuration of the Microsoft Certificate Ser vices, smart card reader devices, and the smart cards themselves.