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

BIOS and UEFI, TPM 2.0, and Secure Boot

BIOS, also known as the Basic Input/Output System, is loaded directly onto a PC motherboard. Its purpose is to initialize the physical hardware, go through a series of processes, and eventually boot into Windows. Just like the operating system or PC software, the BIOS in your systems can become outdated and vulnerable to unauthorized modification. Furthermore, the BIOS initializes privileged hardware processes with greater rights than the operating system itself. Malware not only targets the OS, but other mechanisms in the boot process, including the boot loader and hypervisor used for virtualization. It's important to have a system of authorized update mechanisms for updating the BIOS and ensure it's only configured and signed by an authentic source such as the device manufacturer. In order to maintain the integrity of the BIOS and mitigate risks from malware such as bootkits, digital signature verification should be used for updates...