Ever wonder if the machines that you manage have the most up-to-date security updates and aren't mis-configured. 

MBSA is the free (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/tools/mbsahome.mspx) , best practices vulnerability assessment tool for the Microsoft platform. It is a tool designed for the IT Professional that helps with the assessment phase of an overall security management strategy. MBSA can perform local or remote scans of Windows systems.

MBSA runs on:

•

Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 systems

MBSA will scan for common system misconfigurations in the following products:

•

Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003

•

Internet Information Server (IIS), SQL Server, Internet Explorer, Office

MBSA will also scan for missing security updates for the following products:

•

Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003

•

IIS, SQL Server, Internet Explorer, Office, Exchange Server, Windows Media Player, Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC), MSXML, Microsoft Virtual Machine, Commerce Server, Content Management Server, BizTalk Server, Host Integration Server

MBSA 2.0 is the next version of the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer, which utilizes the Windows Update Services infrastructure for security update scanning. Please help us improve the quality of this release. We are currently accepting nominations into the MBSA 2.0 beta program. To nominate yourself for the beta, visit http://beta.microsoft.com, sign in to the system using your Passport ID and a guest ID of "MBSA20" and complete the survey.