Securing Windows Server 2008

SECURING WINDOWS SERVER 2008

I chose to do my paper on how to secure Windows Server 2008. Going through chapter 13 in the text book, there are many ways to implement security. Windows Server 2008 has many security features built into it such as: Reduced attack surface of the kernel through Server Core, Expanded group policy, Windows Firewall, Network Access Protection, Security Configuration Wizard, User Account Control, and BitLocker Drive Encryption. These are all enhancements made within Server 2008 from prior versions that didn’t have very good security protocols and Microsoft listened to the businesses that used Windows and made Windows Server 2008 much more security friendly.

Of course the simplest and most basic way to secure the server is to use the Security Configuration Wizard. This is exactly what it sounds like, a wizard. It’s purpose is to help configure security measures on the server. One of the most important sections you go through is the specific user accounts.

An important step to secure the server is setting up the user configuration settings and user access controls (UAC). Setting the proper user/group privileges restricts access to files and areas within the server. When setting these privileges you must ask the question, “who needs access to what?” so you can control access within the server based environment on the idea of “least privilege”. When it comes to user accounts, you need to have a Password Policy which should require each employee to have a good strong password of 12 to 16 characters to include two upper case letters, two lower case letters, two special characters, and two numbers at a minimum.

You also need to install a detection/monitoring system. With these you can detect issues that are happening or you could see things that may lead to an issue that could allow for vulnerabilities. If the traffic on your server is higher at specific times of the day that there should be minimal traffic, this will show you and you...