In this section of the course,
we're going to be covering hardening.
Now, hardening refers to the process
of enhancing the security of a system,
application, or network
by implementing a series of measures and configurations
that reduces its exposure to vulnerabilities
and potential threats.
Now, these measures typically are going to include
applying security patches, configuring access controls,
disabling unnecessary services,
and adopting best practices
to strengthen the overall security posture
and resilience against cyber attacks.
Now, in this section of the course,
we're going to focus on domain two and domain four.
I'll be covering objectives 2.5, 4.1, and 4.5.
Objective 2.5 states that you must be able to explain
the purpose of mitigation techniques used
to secure the enterprise.
Objective 4.1 states that given a scenario,
you must be able to apply common security techniques
to computing resources.
And objective 4.5 states that given a scenario,
you must be able to modify enterprise capabilities
to enhance security.
Now, first, we're going to cover default configurations
and how to change them.
These default configurations apply to the default password,
default open ports and protocols,
and other insecure default configurations
that may exist in your system.
Next, we're going to cover how to restrict applications.
Application restriction is a security approach
where only explicitly approved or allow listed applications
are going to be allowed to be run on a system or network,
while all other applications
are going to be blocked by default.
This proactive measure is going to ensure
that only trusted and authorized software can be executed
while minimizing the risk of malware
or unauthorized programs
that can compromise your system security.
Then we'll take a look at unnecessary services
on your system and how we can disable them.
Unnecessary services refer to software processes
or network services running on a computer or network
that are not required for essential system functionality
or business operations.
These services may consume system resources,
introduce security vulnerabilities,
and increase the attack surface,
which makes your system more susceptible to a cyber attack.
After that, we'll cover trusted operating systems.
Now, trusted operating systems
are specialized operating systems
that have undergone rigorous security evaluations
and certifications to ensure their trustworthiness
and reliability for handling sensitive
or classified information.
These operating systems are designed
with strict security controls and access restrictions
to protect against unauthorized access, data breaches,
and other security threats.
Next, we'll explore updates and patches.
Updates are software modifications or improvements
released by developers to enhance the features, fix bugs
or improve security, stability
and performance of their software.
Patches, on the other hand, are specific software updates
that are designed to address identified vulnerabilities
or security issues inside of a program,
system or application.
Then we'll discuss patch management.
Now, patch management is the systematic process
of identifying, testing, deploying
and monitoring software patches and updates
to maintain the security and functionality
of a computer system.
After that, we'll explore group policies.
Group policies are a set of rules and configurations
in Windows environments that allow administrators
to centrally manage and control user and computer settings,
ensuring compliance and security
with your operational standards.
Next, we're going to cover SE Linux.
Now SE Linux or Security Enhanced Linux
is a security framework for Linux-based operating systems
that implements mandatory access controls
to confine and limit the actions of processes and users
to enhance the system's overall security.
Then we'll take a look at data encryption levels.
Data encryption is the process
of converting data into a secret code
to prevent unauthorized access.
When it comes to data encryption,
data can be encrypted at different levels,
including the full-disk level, partition level, file level,
volume level, database level, or record level.
After that, we're going to dive into the world
of secure baselines.
A secure baseline is a predefined,
standardized configuration and its associated settings
for computer systems, applications, or networks
that establishes a secure starting point
to minimize security risk and vulnerabilities.
Finally, we'll take a short quiz to see what you learned
during this section of the course
and review each of those quiz questions fully
to ensure that you can explain each answer
and why it was right.
So let's go ahead and get started in the world of hardening
and how to better protect our systems
in this section of the course.