System Administration and Hardening

Definition of System Administration and Hardening

System administration skills are important to know how to maintain security systems as well as advise others on how to meet compliance and best practice frameworks. This includes recommending and implementing system hardening and defensive security measures.

Assistant / Associate:

Familiar hardening controls of either Windows or Linux operating systems
Familiar with basic cloud IaaS operation

Senior Associate / Professional:

Familiar hardening controls of both Windows and Linux operating systems
Familiar with OS hardening frameworks and able to follow recommendations
Understands administrative users and controls on both Windows and Linux
Able to parse system logs to troubleshoot problems

Senior Professional / Principal:

Expert at automating changes
Understands how to judge overall risk of a particular configuration
Able to deploy software in a secure fashion
Coaches others on system hardening

How to Develop System Administration and Hardening

Training Courses:

· BYU IT&C 344 - Operating Systems

· BYU IT&C 544 - System Administration

· SANS SEC505: Securing Windows and PowerShell Automation

· SANS SEC506: Securing Linux/Unix

Online Videos:

· https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DvTwuByjo0

· https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAMWG86sEm8

· https://www.udemy.com/course/linux-administration-bootcamp/

Experiences:

· Automate deployment of applications/software and secure configurations to both Windows and Linux.

How to Demonstrate System Administration and Hardening

DO:Describe what you did in completing / achieving your development plan

· Automate configuration changes and standards your systems need to meet.

· How to ensure only authorized users access a system and where to look when things don’t work.

ASSESS:Share, if applicable, any assessments that were taken / provided related to your activities

· Benchmark system security using available tooling before and after changes.

· Examine processes to create new systems or resources and how they could be improved.

LEARN:Explain what you felt that you were able to learn during your journey / experiences

· Study best practices for deploying and securing systems.

· Discuss ideas with the system administrators in your area.

APPLY:Give specifics examples where you have / plan to make direct application to your work

· Share how you might streamline software deployment processes.

· Share how you could improve or monitor system security.

· Document system configurations and deployments for others to understand.

REFLECT:Review / consider things you would have done differently had you had this experience earlier

· Consider what has worked and what hasn’t in your experience. Which processes are not worth the effort to maintain for a particular system’s risk?