UNC (Universal Naming Convention) identifies servers, printers, and other resources in the UNIX/Windows Community. The name of a computer is anteceded in a UNC path by double slashes or backslashes. Local disk or directories UNC paths are separated by a single slash or backslash.

A safe and secure environment is prioritized by every type of organization and configuring some basic Group Policy Settings properly, can help in achieving this task. Also, by using Group Policies correctly a user’s computer can be protected from threats and breaches.

The National Security Agency (NSA) and partner cybersecurity authorities recently released an information sheet recommending proper configuration and monitoring of PowerShell, as opposed to removing or disabling PowerShell entirely. PowerShell is a built-in scripting language and a command-line executor developed by Microsoft to provide a better interface for system administrators to simplify and automate administrative tasks.

NIST stands for National Institute of Standards and Technology. NIST was founded in 1901 and is a part of the U.S Department of Commerce. It is one of the oldest physical science laboratories in the US and was formed to remove challenges related to industrial competitiveness.

As delivered from the manufacturer, your network systems’ default configurations are often function-oriented rather than security-oriented. Changing the system’s default configuration to a more secure form is what we refer to as system hardening.

Server security hardening is an essential element for preventing targeted attacks, as outlined in recent researches reported by both Gartner and the NSA. Consistent, continual IT security hardening is your enterprise’s most valuable security control.

As a CISO or Security Manager, you understand your organization’s need to remain one step ahead of cybercriminals searching for gaps in your security posture. The market is flooded with solutions for dealing with vulnerabilities and the challenge continues to be understanding the ways to best prioritize and manage the vulnerabilities.

Our team has more than a decade of experience in server hardening. We’ll help you determine the right policy to achieve maximum compliance with minimal efforts.

In this article we will provide basic information regarding the Clipboard Redirection setting, which enables the copy past function in remote desktop. Once you have decided the setting’s desired value, be sure and test it to fully understand what will be its impact on your production. This is critical since you don’t want it to result in damage to production. Configuring RDS Clipboard Redirection settings is a fundamental step in the hardening project.

The latest Windows versions are compatible with NTLM and default NTLM implementation necessitates Active Directory. Microsoft has shared instructions on mitigating PetitPotam a type of NTLM relay attack that is used against Windows domain servers or controllers. Microsoft has referred to it as the ‘classic’ NTLM (ADV210003) relay attack allowing an attacker to take over domain controller or other Windows servers.