discussion 10

Hardening windows operating system is very essential when it comes to security issues. Most of the firms which deliver an application in hardware appliances form factor “harden” the windows operating system (OS). This is achieved by disabling specific functions in the operating system and creating a configuration settings which makes the operating system to only function for the expected needs of that particular application. This helps in ensuring that the end user is not able to run any other applications which is in the appliance. It also implies that specific access points which are exploited by criminal as well as hackers are not available.

Hardening of operating is advantageous but should be carried out by experienced people because it might interfere with the whole system if carried out in the wrong manner. For instance when hardening the operating system then it is very essential to ensure that protect the servers from denial service and any other attack which likely to be detected.

There are several things which were interesting in this chapter, fist the most interesting part in this chapter was the part which discussed about hardening the server’s TCP as well as IP stack (Netbios, ICMP, SYN, SYN-ACK). I got to learn that in the process of hardening the IP stack then the network is capable of sustaining or completely thwart several sophisticated attacks which are related to the networks. Another interesting part in this chapter which I came across was the part which in determination of the number of times the TCP is capable of retransmitting, here were able to understand how the TCP retransmits data segments until their values expires or up to a point where they are acknowledge (Solomon & Microsoft Corporation, 2011)

.In this chapter there were also some parts which were very difficult, for instance disabling the enumeration of the SIDS, this is because even after renaming the administrator accounts an intruder who has a strong software can still be able to access the real account.

Some of the topic for this week are in some articles which are in the Google scholar. I will summarize some of this topic as outlined in most articles which are in the Google scholar. The first topic which is in most of the articles is the use of Bootlevel or a BIOS password, after setting  a Boot level BIOS password, then you should understand that the password will be required each and every time you start the system. Normally the system is usually completely disabled if the system password is not entered correctly (Solomon, 2014).

Another topic which is available in most of the articles in Google scholar is encryption of documents as well as temp folders, Both Windows 2000 and Windows XP gives room for encryption of selected folders and also data files which are in the computer, basically encryption adds an extra layer of security and hence ensuring that even if the system is attacked by hackers then you are not likely to lose your data.