Discussion Requirements You are provided a handout to begin this discussion. Tas
ID: 3747477 • Letter: D
Question
Discussion Requirements
You are provided a handout to begin this discussion.
Tasks
Discuss system hardening strategies and techniques including updates and patches, default logon/passwords, anonymous access, removal of unneeded services, separation of production and development environments, and settings such as password length and complexity by answering the following questions:
What hardening guidelines or standards are you familiar with?
What steps have you taken to harden systems?
What function do each of the strategies discussed serve?
Summarize your thoughts in a Microsoft Word document checking for spelling and grammar, then submit it directly (cut & paste) into the discussion thread.
Respond to at least two other students’ views to engage in a meaningful debate regarding their posts or to defend your post.
Required Resources
Textbook and Internet
Handout: System Hardening
Submission Requirements
Format: Please enter directly into the Discussion Question window
Citation Style: Follow APA
At least 300 words
Spelling and Grammar count so I suggest you first type your post into MS Word and check for spelling and grammar. You can then cut & Paste into the Discussion Question thread.
Self-Assessment Checklist
I discussed my experience with formal hardening guidelines and standards.
I offered details such as what function the strategy serves.
I responded to at least two other students’ views to engage in a meaningful debate regarding their choices or to defend my choices.
Explanation / Answer
Answer)
System hardening is the process of securing a computer system by reducing the vulnerabilities, closing the loopholes, reducing the risks in the operation of the system. Protection in system hardening is performed in various layers of the system such as host level, application level, operating system level, user level and physical level and thus eliminating the risks associated with the system usage. The most common hardening techniques include:
Installing updates and patches regularly - so that the OS and the system can perform to the latest version
default logon/passwords - Changing the default logon/passwords to customer logon/passwords so that attackers cannot use this method to intervene
anonymous access - closing anonymous access such that only people with a specific id and registered users will be able to access
removal of unneeded services - services which are not required in a system and whose functionality is not known should be removed
separation of production and development environments - production and development environments should be different for security purposes such that development issues do not creep into production. Only stable system should be running in production.
Security settings such as password strength and length and complexity should be defined and should be a strong password setting.
We are all familiar with the above hardening guidelines and have taken all the above measures and some more measures such as:
a) Disabling the use of cookies in the application
b) Using encryption algorithms to keep data safe
c) Installing firewall
d) Installing virus/antispyware application
and more.
All the functions discussed above system hardening help in an application and system hardening.