Windows Server 2003 Security: A Technical Reference

Sound Enterprise Strategies

A number of best practices when using Encrypted File System should be incorporated into your overall public key strategy, regardless of the size of your enterprise. Best practices for the use of certificate services and EFS will be provided in Chapter 12.

Here are general best practices:

• Clear pagefile at shut down— Sensitive information such as passwords and plaintext copies of data in encrypted files may remain in the pagefile. To ensure that an offline attacker cannot recover this information, clear the pagefile at shutdown.

• Encrypt temporary folders— Many applications, including Microsoft Word, use temporary files to store changes to documents. If the temporary files used while modifying encrypted files are not ...