1 1 00:00:00,480 --> 00:00:03,070 Network hardening, in this section of the course, 2 2 00:00:03,070 --> 00:00:05,460 we're going to talk all about network hardening. 3 3 00:00:05,460 --> 00:00:06,990 Now, as a network technician, 4 4 00:00:06,990 --> 00:00:08,530 part of your job is to help make sure 5 5 00:00:08,530 --> 00:00:11,770 our networks are secure by conducting network hardening. 6 6 00:00:11,770 --> 00:00:13,570 The term hardening in cybersecurity 7 7 00:00:13,570 --> 00:00:15,220 simply means to secure a system 8 8 00:00:15,220 --> 00:00:17,070 by reducing its attack surface 9 9 00:00:17,070 --> 00:00:19,110 or the surface of vulnerabilities. 10 10 00:00:19,110 --> 00:00:21,970 So, if you have a network with all of your ports open, 11 11 00:00:21,970 --> 00:00:23,790 you are really vulnerable. 12 12 00:00:23,790 --> 00:00:24,840 But on the other hand, 13 13 00:00:24,840 --> 00:00:26,370 if you have a network that blocks traffic 14 14 00:00:26,370 --> 00:00:29,050 on every single port going outbound or inbound, 15 15 00:00:29,050 --> 00:00:31,470 you have an isolated network that isn't very helpful 16 16 00:00:31,470 --> 00:00:33,110 or useful to your business. 17 17 00:00:33,110 --> 00:00:36,000 So for this reason, we have to find a healthy balance 18 18 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:37,800 between operations and security. 19 19 00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:39,150 And the best way to do that, 20 20 00:00:39,150 --> 00:00:41,320 is by following a series of best practices 21 21 00:00:41,320 --> 00:00:43,030 in order to harden our network devices 22 22 00:00:43,030 --> 00:00:44,070 and our clients. 23 23 00:00:44,070 --> 00:00:47,180 So in this section, we're going to focus on just one domain 24 24 00:00:47,180 --> 00:00:48,530 and one objective. 25 25 00:00:48,530 --> 00:00:49,960 We'll be talking specifically about 26 26 00:00:49,960 --> 00:00:54,370 domain for network security and focusing on objective 4.3. 27 27 00:00:54,370 --> 00:00:56,870 Objective 4.3 states, given a scenario, 28 28 00:00:56,870 --> 00:00:59,300 you must apply network hardening techniques, 29 29 00:00:59,300 --> 00:01:02,150 which is why this section is called network hardening. 30 30 00:01:02,150 --> 00:01:04,250 Now, this includes a lot of best practices 31 31 00:01:04,250 --> 00:01:06,410 surrounding patch management for our clients, 32 32 00:01:06,410 --> 00:01:08,450 password security for all of our devices, 33 33 00:01:08,450 --> 00:01:10,190 shutting down unneeded services, 34 34 00:01:10,190 --> 00:01:11,330 increasing network security 35 35 00:01:11,330 --> 00:01:13,380 by using port security and VLANs, 36 36 00:01:13,380 --> 00:01:16,810 conducting inspections and policing, securing SNMP, 37 37 00:01:16,810 --> 00:01:19,160 utilizing access control lists properly, 38 38 00:01:19,160 --> 00:01:21,170 ensuring the security of our wireless devices, 39 39 00:01:21,170 --> 00:01:24,340 and even taking a look at some of our internet of things 40 40 00:01:24,340 --> 00:01:26,770 and the security considerations surrounding those. 41 41 00:01:26,770 --> 00:01:29,550 So, let's get started talking all about the different ways 42 42 00:01:29,550 --> 00:01:32,550 for us to harden our networks in this section of the course.