Suggested Sites functionality must be disallowed.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-30776	DTBI765	SV-40759r1_rule	ECSC-1	Medium

Description
This policy setting controls the Suggested Sites feature, which recommends sites based on the user's browsing activity. Suggested Sites reports a user's browsing history to Microsoft to store and monitor user page activity to suggest sites the user might want to visit. If you enable this policy setting, the user will not be prompted to enable the Suggested Sites and the user's browsing activities will be sent and stored online to produce suggestions. If you disable this policy setting, the entry points and functionality associated with this feature will be disabled.

Description

This policy setting controls the Suggested Sites feature, which recommends sites based on the user's browsing activity. Suggested Sites reports a user's browsing history to Microsoft to store and monitor user page activity to suggest sites the user might want to visit. If you enable this policy setting, the user will not be prompted to enable the Suggested Sites and the user's browsing activities will be sent and stored online to produce suggestions. If you disable this policy setting, the entry points and functionality associated with this feature will be disabled.

STIG	Date
Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2015-12-17

Details

Check Text ( C-39504r3_chk )
The policy value for Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Internet Explorer -> "Turn on Suggested Sites" must be “Disabled”. Procedure: Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key: HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Suggested Sites Criteria: If the value Enabled is REG_DWORD = 0, this is not a finding.

Fix Text (F-34621r1_fix)
Set the policy value for Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Internet Explorer -> "Turn on Suggested Sites" to “Disabled”.