Overview#
Strengthening workstations and servers against attacks. Involves patching, application control, encryption, and disabling unnecessary services.
Core objectives#
- Establish shared definitions of Endpoint Hardening for security, engineering, and leadership teams.
- Connect Endpoint Hardening activities to measurable risk reduction and resilience goals.
- Provide onboarding notes so new team members can quickly understand how Endpoint Hardening works here.
Implementation notes#
- Identify the primary owner for Endpoint Hardening, the data sources involved, and the systems affected.
- Document the minimum viable process, tooling, and runbooks that keep Endpoint Hardening healthy.
- Map Endpoint Hardening practices to standards such as ISO/IEC 27001, NIST CSF, or CIS Controls.
Operational signals#
- Leading indicators: early warnings that Endpoint Hardening might degrade (e.g., backlog growth, noisy alerts, or missed SLAs).
- Lagging indicators: realized impact that shows Endpoint Hardening failed or needs investment (e.g., incidents, audit findings).
- Feedback loops: retrospectives and metrics reviews that tune Endpoint Hardening continuously.
Related practices#
- Align Endpoint Hardening with defense-in-depth planning, threat modeling, and disaster recovery tests.
- Communicate updates to stakeholders through concise briefs, dashboards, and internal FAQs.
- Pair Endpoint Hardening improvements with tabletop exercises to validate expectations.