In part one of this two-part blog series, we discussed seven reasons security configurations are an important part of an organization’s security posture. In this part, we’ll look at eight security configurations that can help with ensuring comprehensive control over the endpoints, avoiding vulnerabilities, deploying security configurations, and automating a number of verticals of endpoint security. We’ll also introduce the comprehensive solution that can help with implementing these configurations.
Desktop Central: The solution that offers top-notch security configurations
Desktop Central offers over 50 configurations for endpoints running Windows, macOS, and Linux to automate mundane administrative tasks, automate endpoint security, and reduce the number of help desk requests. Here are a few lucrative security configurations:
1. Notify users to change their password: You can set an expiration date for passwords and alert the end user a predefined number of days before password expiration. These alerts can be generated automatically until the user changes their password. Furthermore, you can define password policies to increase the complexity of each password by deciding the length and characters to be used along with the number of unique passwords that must be used before old passwords can be reused.
2. Centralize browser management: Multiple web browsers in a network can be managed from a central console by configuring browser-specific settings such as Windows Defender and Firefox Configuration Editor. Additionally, you can secure browsers by whitelisting the trusted and blacklisting the restricted sites, clearing cache and browser history, and restricting end users from using the autofill option for passwords.
3. Strengthen your firewall security: Firewalls help enhance security. By defining firewall rules, you are defining the security perimeter that protects your endpoints from harmful incoming traffic and prevents exfiltration by filtering outgoing traffic. Besides configuring firewall rules for Windows Vista and later versions, secure the firewall for a legacy operating systems like Windows XP. Defining a rule involves choosing a protocol and an action to either allow or block the traffic.
4. Automate patch management: Streamline patch deployment for Windows, macOS, Linux, and over 350 third-party applications by automating the entire patch cycle from a single platform. Identify vulnerabilities, and download, test, approve, and install missing patches. Automation will help in combating zero-day attacks to better secure your endpoints. Using Desktop Central’s mobile app, you can deploy patches on the go.
5. Keep a tab of permissions and users: Managing permissions will help you in centralizing the access granted for each user to specific files and folders. This way, you keep the boundaries confined for accessing sensitive corporate data. Additionally, you can set expiration dates for each password, and determine when it will have to be changed.
6. Fortify your endpoints from USBs: USB use is inevitable in every organization, but these plug-and-play peripheral devices pose a grave threat to exfiltration of corporate data. The Secure USB configuration lets you block USBs and put restrictions on particular devices while allowing access for the rest either based on device instance or depending on the vendor.
7. Intricately layered security policies: Security policies for Desktop, Internet Explorer, Network, System, Active Desktop, Explorer, Microsoft Management Console, Start Menu and Taskbar, Task Scheduler, Windows Installer, and Control Panel determine the restrictions you can impose on these Windows elements. This helps ensure that every vertical of endpoint security is covered at a fundamental level.
8. Gatekeeper for Mac: The Gatekeeper configuration ensures that only trusted applications are installed by allowing app downloads only from authenticated sources like the App Store and identified developers with a genuine developer ID. This helps lower the probability of app-based attacks.
Too many configurations? Bring them all under a single roof.
Security configurations are certainly helpful in standardizing security across endpoints, but baselining these configurations becomes the bedrock of endpoint security. One way to baseline them would be to group the security configurations as a collection and deploy this collection to all your targets machines. This way, you don’t have to deploy multiple security configurations or ensure that every new system that joins the domain will have these configurations in place.
Any number of security configurations can be grouped into a collection. When a collection is deployed, the settings of each underlying configuration are exercised on the target machine. Baselining security configurations not only cuts down on the time and effort required from IT admins, but also enhances endpoint security.
While it’s true that security configurations are a surefire way of thwarting cyberattacks, it should also be noted that these shouldn’t be the only aspect of your cyber defense strategy. Organizations need an endpoint security solution to secure endpoints holistically to effectively stem attacks.
Configure security settings, and kick back as Desktop Central does a top-notch job of securing your endpoints automatically. Get started with Desktop Central now with a free, 30-day trial.
