The report encompasses the process of installing a computer system. The report also elaborates on the procedures for hardening the operating system to prevent security breaches and other kinds of threats. There is an illustration of 8 kinds of hardening ways for the computer system that is installed. Further, there is a description of the evaluations and recommendations in this regard.
According to the requirements, setting up a 64-bit operating system on Virtual Box has to be done. It is to be noted that Virtual Box is regarded as the virtualization software for free which facilitates home users for playing with various operating systems within the main system. The most important aspect that is necessary for the installation of a Virtual Box is the proper configuration (Cheng, Ding & Deng, 2015). Virtual Box is very fair and simple to use. There are certain tricks that are necessary for the effective implementation and operation of the entire system. It has to be also noted that loading 64 bits consume more time as compared to the systems of other configurations.
The steps for installing s the 64-bit operating system on Virtual Box are as follows:
The first step regarding the installation of the 64-bit operating system is to download and install the latest version of Virtual Box. The host denotes the computer system that has to be run on the Virtual Box (Chapple & Seidl, 2017).
This has to be followed by rebooting the system into BIOS and integrating hardware virtualization. This will be displayed as AMD-V or VT-x and or “Virtualization Technology” depending upon the manufacturer and the operating system of the host (Dulaney & Easttom, 2017).
This has to be conducted with careful consideration that all kinds of defaults have to be accepted. However, one has to configure and explore all the aspects.
The process to harden the computer system includes the ensuring of creating backups. This is one of the most important aspects that have to be done to protect the data from various kinds of encryption (Jann et al., 2015). By having backups, one can effective removal the infection that may happen to affect the system which will also assist in restoring the data after clearing up the system. having an external hard disk for storing or backing up the data will not be effective ad ransom will be encrypted and target all kinds of drives attached to the computer system. Hence, the system of cloud backup is more effective in this regard. Installing an antivirus solution which can detect the behaviour of the threats will assist in hardening the system. Further, installing the updates of the operating system will ensure the hardening of the computer systems. This way many updates, in this regard, will protect the computer system from various vulnerabilities.
The operating system of Linux can be hardened by using the following steps:
It is very crucial to update the installation of different packages and operating systems which will protect the entire system from getting affected. Hardening can only be effective in the presence of a secured and stable Linux operating system.
The other custom applications that are installed by the user have to be maintained by any package manager regularly which would facilitate the application of the latest updates of security features (McDonald et al., 2017).
Login in as a root user should be completely avoided. Hackers make frequent attempts of cracking the password and obtain access disabling the logins from the user name of roots will assist in the hardening of the system.
Ensuring the placement of a firewall will assist in the effective protection of the entire operating system. one can use NetFilter which is a firewall which is integrated with the kernel Linux which will assist in preventing unwanted traffic (Montgomery & Olson, 2018).
Users should not allow the accounts to exhibit empty fields of passwords or use simple passwords.
A user never needs all kinds of services and packages that came with the distribution of Linux. Users can remove the applications and packages that are not used frequently. This will assist in hardening the operating system as it will result in less worry through which the system will be affected.
Unused and open network services and ports are very vulnerable to get affected by hackers, hence, they have to protect against various kinds of exploitation. One can use the command of “ nets” for seeing all kinds of open ports of the network that are used currently along with the associated services. One can also consider the configuration of “iptables” for closing all the open ports. The use of command “chkconfig” can also be sued to disable unwanted services (Dulaney & Easttom, 2017).
Most of the time, hackers make targets for the data during the transition over a network. This makes it very crucial for encrypting the transmissions for the servers by using passwords, certificates and keys. Among the popular tools for encryption is GnuPG which is an authentication system based on a key and can be used for encrypting communications.
After starting the system, the user needs to maintain the optimization of the system by ensuring the maximum installation of errata and patches that would include the corrections, updates and fixes to the system along with the applications that are running on the platform. Security Enhanced Linux has to be integrated into the operating system which would make the entire system highly robust and encrypted.
Various aspects of the hardening of the operating system as well as the overall computer system are described in the report. The report has provided in-depth insights into different elements that are used for the installation as well as protecting the operating system.
Cheng, Y., Ding, X. and Deng, R.H., 2015, April. Efficient virtualization-based application protection against the untrusted operating system. In Proceedings of the 10th ACM Symposium on Information, Computer and Communications Security (pp. 345-356). ACM.
Chapple, M. and Seidl, D., 2017. CompTIA CSA+ Study Guide: Exam CS0-001. John Wiley & Sons.
Dulaney, E. and Easttom, C., 2017. CompTIA Security+ Study Guide: Exam SY0-501. John Wiley & Sons.
Ferguson, B., 2015. CompTIA Network+ Review Guide, (Exam: N10-006). John Wiley & Sons.
Montgomery, T. and Olson, S., 2018. CompTIA Cloud+ Study Guide Exam CV0-002. John Wiley & Sons.
McDonald, J.T., Manikyam, R., Glisson, W.B., Andel, T.R. and Gu, Y.X., 2017, August. Enhanced Operating System Protection to Support Digital Forensic Investigations. In Trustcom/BigDataSE/ICESS, 2017 IEEE (pp. 650-659). IEEE.
Jann, J., Pattnaik, P., Burugula, R.S. and Dubey, N., International Business Machines Corp, 2015. Method and apparatus for operating system event notification mechanism using file system interface. U.S. Patent 8,935,579.
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