Defensive Security Handbook: Best Practices for Securing Infrastructure

Despite the increase of high-profile hacks, record-breaking data leaks, and ransomware attacks, many organizations don’t have the budget to establish or outsource an information security (InfoSec) program, forcing them to learn on the job. For companies obliged to improvise, this pragmatic guide provides a security-101 handbook with steps, tools, processes, and ideas to help you drive maximum-security improvement at little or no cost.

Each chapter in this book provides step-by-step instructions for dealing with a specific issue, including breaches and disasters, compliance, network infrastructure and password management, vulnerability scanning, and penetration testing, among others. Network engineers, system administrators, and security professionals will learn tools and techniques to help improve security in sensible, manageable chunks.

• Learn fundamentals of starting or redesigning an InfoSec program
• Create a base set of policies, standards, and procedures
• Plan and design incident response, disaster recovery, compliance, and physical security
• Bolster Microsoft and Unix systems, network infrastructure, and password management
• Use segmentation practices and designs to compartmentalize your network
• Explore automated process and tools for vulnerability management
• Securely develop code to reduce exploitable errors
• Understand basic penetration testing concepts through purple teaming
• Delve into IDS, IPS, SOC, logging, and monitoring

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Creating a Security Program
Chapter 2 Asset Management & Documentation
Chapter 3 Policies
Chapter 4 Standards & Procedures
Chapter 5 User Education
Chapter 6 Incident Response
Chapter 7 Disaster Recovery
Chapter 8 Industry Compliance Standards & Frameworks
Chapter 9 Physical Security
Chapter 10 Microsoft Windows Infrastructure
Chapter 11 Unix Application Servers
Chapter 12 Endpoints
Chapter 13 Password Management & Multi-Factor Authentication
Chapter 14 Network Infrastructure
Chapter 15 Segmentation
Chapter 16 Vulnerability Management
Chapter 17 Development
Chapter 18 Purple Teaming
Chapter 19 IDS & IPS
Chapter 20 Logging and Monitoring
Chapter 21 The Extra Mile
Appendix A User Education Templates