Microsoft Security Compliance Manager (SCM) provides an end-to-end Solution Accelerator to help you plan, deploy, and monitor the security baselines of your Windows® operating systems and Microsoft® Office applications. In addition, the knowledge available in SCM can help you balance your organization’s needs for security and functionality more effectively.

SCM provides you with enhanced capabilities to view, update, import and export, and compare and duplicate security and compliance baselines for leading Microsoft products. SCM was created to make it easier for you to plan, implement, and monitor security compliance baselines in organizations of all sizes.

Plan and deploy your security baselines quickly and reliably

SCM provides updated security baselines for Windows operating systems and applications, including Microsoft Office applications and Windows® Internet Explorer®. These resources are accessible via SCM, which is designed to make it easy to work with security and compliance baselines. The product baselines and guides include comprehensive security and compliance setting information that has been thoroughly tested.

Monitor your security baselines

After deploying your security baselines, the accuracy of the security and compliance settings can change or drift during daily operation. To ensure that the computers running in your environment comply with your established security and compliance baselines, you can monitor them by using the Configuration Packs that accompany SCM. The Configuration Packs include hundreds of security and compliance settings and guidance to help you set up and monitor computers running Windows operating systems and Microsoft applications. The Configuration Packs work with the DCM feature in Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1. You can also customize the Configuration Packs to validate security and compliance settings values that are specific to your environment.