{"id":54312,"date":"2025-10-01T10:00:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T14:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/?p=54312"},"modified":"2025-10-01T10:03:33","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T14:03:33","slug":"security-hardening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/security-hardening\/54312\/","title":{"rendered":"Security hardening: reducing an attack surface"},"content":{"rendered":"

The past several years have seen a number of positive developments in global cybersecurity, with organizations worldwide making significant investments to bolster their defenses against cyberthreats. More sophisticated solutions, more guidelines available, and a more collaborative cybersecurity environment have all contributed toward a digital landscape enhancement. Yet, against the backdrop of these encouraging developments, a disparity in cyber-resilience between small and large organizations has been widening.<\/p>\n

According to a recent World Economic Forum report<\/a>, larger organizations are showing steady progress in improving their cyber-defenses, but their smaller counterparts are struggling to keep up. While many larger enterprises are equipped with cutting-edge security solutions and dedicated personnel, SMBs often lack the necessary resources, resulting in a yawning gap in their cyber-resilience. Given the context, small businesses have to use every opportunity to mitigate potential cybersecurity risks without extra resources, and that\u2019s where security hardening can turn the tide and help avert potential threats by basically configuring organizations\u2019 systems and networks in the right way.<\/p>\n

So what is security hardening? Security hardening is shorthand for a range of techniques and procedures that help protect digital infrastructure by reducing an attack surface \u2014 essentially turning the security of existing systems up to the maximum without necessarily resorting to extra protection solutions. In this article, we explore some of the must-have strategies that can help organizations \u2014 especially those with limited or no dedicated cybersecurity resources \u2014 to reduce exposure to potential attacks.<\/p>\n

Implementing strong authentication and authorization<\/h2>\n

The first fundamental is taking steps to reduce the risk of unauthorized access to a company\u2019s systems and data. This requires the enforcement of a strict password policy<\/strong> that defines password length requirements, allowed characters, prohibited combinations, password expiration interval, etc. It should also include recommendations on the password storage method to rule out unsafe practices.<\/p>\n

Another indispensable practice is the use of two-factor authentication<\/strong>, meaning that to access specific resources or data an employee has to verify their identity in two different ways. With two-factor authentication in place, even if attackers learn an employee\u2019s password somehow, they still need to bypass the second factor, which gives an extra layer of protection.<\/p>\n

And finally, organizations need to implement network access<\/strong> control<\/strong> measures to control users that enter the corporate network and also the level of access of these users. Configuring permissions within a corporate network following the least-privilege principle is a best practice, ensuring that users only have access to the systems needed to perform their tasks, and don\u2019t have access to the entire environment. In an environment where employees have access only to the systems that they strictly need, in case of a potential breach attackers would have limited options for lateral movement within the network, which would minimize potential damage. Another useful tip is to regularly audit all accounts and their permissions, and revoking unnecessary ones \u2013 in case an employee is dismissed or moves to a different department.<\/p>\n

Regularly updating software and timely patching vulnerabilities<\/h2>\n

Regular and prompt updates<\/strong> of operating systems, applications, and other software can help eliminate known vulnerabilities that can be used by attackers to compromise organizations\u2019 networks. Software development is continually advancing, leading to two main challenges: a system can rapidly become outdated or even obsolete, and, more critically, it may become vulnerable to cyberattacks. Software developers address these issues by implementing new code distributed as part of updates. Software updates not only fix bugs or improve performance, but also might include patches of vulnerabilities<\/strong> detected during software operation. \u0421ybercriminals never fail to grab the opportunity to exploit known vulnerabilities, with some of them exploited for years<\/a>, which exposes the fact that years after the release of patches some organizations fail to install them.<\/p>\n

Encrypting data<\/h2>\n

Encryption of data at rest (when data is stored, for example, on drives) as well as in transit (when data is moving between devices, such as within private networks or over the internet), protects the data from interception and unauthorized access. The two most effective data protection technologies are File and Folder Level Encryption (FLE) and Full Disk Encryption (FDE), which are used for tackling different tasks. The former protects critical data and restricts access to it, while the latter rules out the possibility of any data falling into the hands of third parties \u2014 even if a data storage device holding valuable information is lost or stolen.<\/p>\n

Both FLE and FDE can be implemented on corporate computers with the help of built-in tools:<\/p>\n