At the time, Windows NT was lauded for having better security than its competitors. I remember “Department of Defense C2 level security” being invoked often. It was a major selling point, though one that didn’t feel relevant for most users (in fact, lots of people felt like “why would I need this?”; it made it seem like an OS that wasn’t for “normal users”).

Early ’90s conceptions of security—both what makes it and how relevant it is/for whom—don’t match our expectations or what we consider state of the art today.