Your tax dollars have been put to good use for a change, as the US National Security Agency (NSA) has been busy figuring out how to make Windows 2000 more secure, and has released a set of templates and instructions to enable anyone to batten down their '2K hatches.

The package had been available briefly at NSA's Web site, but has temporarily been taken down due to overwhelming demand. The files will be available again from NSA within a week's time. Meanwhile, Cryptome has kindly mirrored it all here.

The templates (.INF files) cover domain controllers, domain policy, and server and workstation settings. The recommendation guides are supplied as .PDF files and address numerous topics such as group policy, Active Directory, DNS, certificates, IIS, routers and Kerberos.

The NSA has also developed a more secure version of Linux, which is available here. ®