Book Image

Mastering Windows Security and Hardening

By : Mark Dunkerley, Matt Tumbarello
Book Image

Mastering Windows Security and Hardening

By: Mark Dunkerley, Matt Tumbarello

Overview of this book

Are you looking for effective ways to protect Windows-based systems from being compromised by unauthorized users? Mastering Windows Security and Hardening is a detailed guide that helps you gain expertise when implementing efficient security measures and creating robust defense solutions. We will begin with an introduction to Windows security fundamentals, baselining, and the importance of building a baseline for an organization. As you advance, you will learn how to effectively secure and harden your Windows-based system, protect identities, and even manage access. In the concluding chapters, the book will take you through testing, monitoring, and security operations. In addition to this, you’ll be equipped with the tools you need to ensure compliance and continuous monitoring through security operations. By the end of this book, you’ll have developed a full understanding of the processes and tools involved in securing and hardening your Windows environment.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
1
Section 1: Getting Started
6
Section 2: Applying Security and Hardening
13
Section 3: Protecting, Detecting, and Responding for Windows Environments

Understanding device administration

Without device administration, the task of ensuring your devices are secured and hardened is unrealistic. Unless you manage a very small number of devices, you are going to need some form of device administration to ensure your devices are set up to meet compliance policies and are secured when they are handed over to your employees. Even after the devices have been handed over, you are going to need to continuously push changes to these devices. Without effective administration, your organization will be putting itself in an extremely vulnerable situation.

We covered the concepts and Microsoft tools used to manage both your end user devices and Windows servers in detail in Chapter 3, Server Infrastructure Management, and Chapter 4, End User Device Management. This chapter will expand on those tools, and you will learn how to administer your devices along with enforcing the predefined baselines your company has agreed upon to ensure your devices...