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

Building baseline controls

Moving on, we will cover some more details about the baseline controls that can be used o your Windows devices. Here, we will cover the following:

  • Center for Internet Security (CIS®)
  • The Windows security baselines

CIS

First, we will look at CIS. You may already be familiar with CIS and you will often see CIS listed on a lot of lists of the most preferred frameworks, although it's not a full comprehensive framework like the others that we previously listed. Instead, CIS is more of a tactical compilation of controls and guidelines that allows organizations to meet the requirements of a chosen framework. The following screenshot is of the current CIS home page and can be reached by going to https://www.cisecurity.org/:

Figure 2.5 – The CIS home page

CIS is a non-profit organization comprising a global community to provide protection against the ongoing cybersecurity threat landscape. More specifically...