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 authentication, MFA, and going passwordless

In this section, we will review authentication as you are familiar with it today. We will also look at MFA and its importance in today's technical world. We will finish with a review of what we can expect the next generation of authentication to look like with no more passwords. As already stated, a compromise of credentials is one of the most common methods of a breach today. Our current authentication models are outdated and need updating. The traditional method of entering a username and password is simply not acceptable and you need to make changes to improve. If you don't have a strategy in place to improve your authentication posture, add it to your top three security priorities. We need to assume that our account information and passwords have already been breached. If they haven't, it's only a matter of time before they are!

Looking at a traditional on-premises deployment, authentication methods...