10 Tips for Hardening your Linux Servers

For the first episode in my Enterprise Linux Security series, I go over 10 tips for hardening your Linux servers. This video includes some important suggestions to take into consideration for your infrastructure, that will serve as a foundation for future episodes. As the series continues, we'll explore more concepts in-depth.

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*📘 FAQ*

#Server #Linux #Security

[NodeNomad]

01 # 02:42 #  Number 1 : Adjust your mindset
02 # 04:59 #  Number 2 : Patch your servers (and no excuses)
03 # 07:59 # Number 3 : Strengthen your passwords
04 # 09:10 # Number 4 : Don't open services to the public internet (unless you have no other choice)
05 # 11:32 # Number 5 : Lock down SSH
06 # 13:41 # Number 6 : Implement as many as layers of security as possible
07 # 15:12 # Number 7 : Implement reliable backups that are fully tested
08 # 16:57 # Number 8 : Take advantage of monitoring tools
09 # 18:41 # Number 9 : Consider a third party security audit
10 # 20:02 # Number 10 : Implement a business continuity plan

[unattributed]

I love it that you think of backups and continuity as security issues. I've worked for too many companies where that wasn't the case. However there was one that I worked that was in the process of designing their own self-healing environment. Really appreciate that they were pushing forward with that idea.

[drmikeyg]

Jay, a video on monitoring tools would be nice. Thanks and keep up the great work.

[stefandevos]

As an aspiring Linux System Administrator, this video is invaluable. Thank you

[fredtheilig]

Doing vulnerability scans should be on this list.

[wekiwa]

Great video Jay. A multi part on Locking down a public facing server to maybe DOD levels would be great. Your common sense approach is refreshing.

[here_is_pacific]

great..but plz add timeline in future videos

[abdalla]

Going into my second year into System Administration, I'm very much thankful for your information. I will be looking forward to apply them in my company's servers.

[natem]

Enjoy your content Jay - as always. One of the best Linux channels on Youtube, and with recent content - probably the best IMHO. Really looking forward to this series.

[KevinLyon]

Thanks Jay! One of the big questions I've always had is around item 7--tested backups. I have basic systems like Deja Dup that does my desktop backups to a second disk in the machine and to a NAS on my network (still need an offsite/cloud option in the mix), but my question around this is always about testing the backups. How? Do I just run the restore and wait to see if it throws an error? Does that risk corrupting my existing data? What other way is there to test a backup properly then?

Love the idea for this latest series!

[strg]

Great video 👍 you could elaborate on the 10 points more in the upcoming videos.

[cjt]

10:40 I learned this lesson today. I was setting up an instance to test for database replication. I don't have much knowledge about all the ports setting, so I set it to listen to public. In just few hours my log files were filled with all kinds of suspicious activities. After googled I realized these are mining virus. Public internet is scary. 😂

[peterjansen]

Good growth of the channel. Hard work and consistency paying of.

[SupraRyu]

You really found your speciality.. Excellent videos. Best for your success!

[akshayvyas]

i feel Patching techniques for different servers should be the next

[QuarKSonTV]

Keeping server up to date is important, although it's worth noting auto-updates can break your server and your service could be down for some time before fixing it

[jschucke]

In addition to patching the OS, don't forget about driver & firmware updates.

[BloodAsp]

I think the wording you were looking for is that you were not looking to incite baseles panic. It is always good to know that you don't know what you don't know, which can be scary when you have a lot hanging on the line.

[fullscaleme]

Plans vs accessibility: in the DMZ [needs a public IP] vs behind a NAT firewall vs only accessed externally via VPN.

[praecorloth]

18:09 This is what I do for public facing servers. Basically no one should be logged into them, so I've got NCPA running a user check every 30 seconds, and sending that information back to Nagios. For the reverse scenario, a server where you expect a lot of user traffic, you can enable State Stalking on a User List service check, that way when someone does log in, Nagios records who logged in, and you have it down to inside of a minute when they logged in, and what the username was.