Hardening Windows & Linux Systems: Best Security Practices

Hardening Windows & Linux Systems

Learn to harden your PC from nothing to becoming a professional within hours of taking this course.

Beginner

Created by : Rated : 4.3 249 views

Last Updated: 2025-04-04 03:04:51 English Course Type: Self Learning

Encryption
Port Blocking
Boot Security
Authentication
Access Control
Operational Security
Backup & Restore
Virtual Machines

In this course, you will learn to strengthen the security of your devices in such a way that it makes it harder for threat actors to infiltrate your system. You’ll learn basic cybersecurity principles known by many cybersecurity professionals. Such include the following;

1. When to use an Administrative Account.

2. BitLocker

3. Blocking Ports that aren’t needed within your network (For both Linux and Windows)

3. Create Local Account for regular usage in the system

4. Learn when to use root on Linux

5. Other steps you can take to harden the computer system

Please be assured that what you’ll learn here will be top-notch from most cybersecurity expert certifications that exist out there. You will be guided through procedures on hardening your systems and networks in every way possible step-by-step throughout this course and will learn common things required to make sure that your systems remain as secure as possible throughout the time of using them.

Hardening is one of the most important components when it comes to cybersecurity. You may take this as a refreshers course, or as a course to just learn how to secure your systems. Nonetheless, please don’t use any of the knowledge here for illegal purposes; I will not be responsible for any damages that you cause to any systems. All devices I’ve used here are my own. This is a course meant to present learners to the basics of hardening a computer system. Components such as Software Hardening, Server Hardening and other kinds of Hardening aren't covered in this course. Operating System Hardening is covered in full context and can give the concept for Software Hardening and other forms of Hardening as the same settings apply for Softwares and Servers and other hardening as well and just requires the use of common sense after completing the whole course.

I would like to include that parts of this course covers some of the objectives learned within the CompTIA A+ and the ISC2 CC.

Windows 11
Debian-based Linux OS
An active internet connection
Virtual Machine (Optional)
Pre-installed Linux Firewall (ufw used in this explanation)

Cybersecurity Enthusiasts
Those willing to learn Cybersecurity
Those willing to secure their data and information
Those willing to protect their data and information on PC

Section 1 : Introduction 2 Lectures
Lecture 1 :
My Introduction Preview
I introduce myself to students and talk a little about the course itself before actually jumping into the entire course syllabus.
Lecture 2 :
Course Introduction
Introducing the course syllabus and what students will learn throughout this course as a whole.
Section 2 : Windows Hardening 9 Lectures 00:04:14
Lecture 1 :
BitLocker
Students will learn to implement BitLocker into the system to help protect data at rest. This will help students further implement encryption in their day-to-day usage of files and confidential information stored on digital systems.
Lecture 2 :
Least Privilege
Students will learn about the principle of least privilege and how to implement this in terms of access control systems for windows by enabling a user account that's more less powerful than an administrator account. There are other methods of least privilege such as RBAC (Role-based Access Control) and restrictions that haven't been explained in this video.
Lecture 3 :
Time-based Password Policy
Students will be able to navigate the Windows Security Policy and configure a time-based Password Policy for their Administrator Account to better harden the PC while applying the principle of least privilege.
Lecture 4 :
Removing Unnecessary Softwares
Students will learn the necessity of uninstalling softwares that aren’t necessary to be in the system. This will ensure that the system is hardened and software vulnerabilities can be fixed in real-time preventing exploitation.
Lecture 5 :
Keeping the System and Softwares Up To Date
Students will learn about the necessity of keeping the operating system and other softwares in the computer up-to-date to prevent including the possibility of vulnerabilities that could be present in outdated systems.
Lecture 6 :
Turning off unnecessary services
Students will learn how to turn off unnecessary services in the system and the possibility of vulnerabilities within services being exploited. Turning these services off helps prevent unauthorized access and full control with SYSTEM Privileges.
Lecture 7 :
Closing Unnecessary Ports
Students will learn how to close down unnecessary ports in the system and the reason why you should do so, this includes vulnerabilities such as EternalBlue and other series vulnerabilities in the Windows System that could be exploited.
Lecture 8 :
Configuring System Protection & System Restore
Students will learn the importance of making system backups and enabling system restore for security purposes.
Lecture 9 :
Turning off Windows RDP and Unnecessary Settings
Students will learn to implement privacy settings to avoid privacy leaks from third-party applications and software installed onto the PC including turning off unnecessary settings that could leave the system vulnerable to attacks.
Section 3 : Linux Hardening 5 Lectures
Lecture 1 :
Least Privilege
Students will learn about the principle of least privilege and how to implement this in terms of access control systems for windows by enabling a user account that's more less powerful than an administrator account. There are other methods of least privilege such as RBAC (Role-based Access Control) and restrictions that haven't been explained in this video.
Lecture 2 :
Keeping System Up To Date & Hardening Virtual Machine
Students will learn how to update their Linux Machine as well as implement hardening in Virtual Machines.
Lecture 3 :
Removing Unnecessary Software
Students will learn the necessity of uninstalling softwares that aren’t necessary to be in the system. This will ensure that the system is hardened and software vulnerabilities can be fixed in real-time preventing exploitation.
Lecture 4 :
Blocking off unnecessary ports
Students will learn how to close down unnecessary ports in the system and the reason why you should do so,
Lecture 5 :
Turning off unnecessary settings
Students will learn to implement privacy settings to avoid privacy leaks from third-party applications and software installed onto the PC including turning off unnecessary settings that could leave the system vulnerable to attacks.
Section 4 : OPSEC 1 Lectures
Lecture 1 :
Operational Security
Students will learn about the basics of Operational Security and how to implement it in the cyber world including protecting data at rest and preventing third-parties from potentially attempting to physically break in to the system.
Section 5 : Conclusion 3 Lectures 00:01:40
Lecture 1 :
Boot Hardening
Students will learn how to harden their PC from BIOS (Basic Input Output System) by enabling the necessary passwords to help secure the system from boot. This helps restrict access from third-parties who are trying to maliciously access the system.
Lecture 2 :
Conclusion
Concluding the course for students. Congratulating them for completing the course so they may proceed with the quiz to finally get their certificate from Learnfly.
Lecture 3 :
Final Examination
This will be the final examination for this course that will determine the students skills to receive their certificate from LearnFly.

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Alameen Karim Merali,

249 Course Views

1 Courses

CHFI | CompTIA | Cyber-Sec | OSINT | Medical | Social Engineering | Mobile Security | Science | ISC2 | I am certified in certain fields of cybersecurity and currently still continuing to gain more certifications, while I get plan to get a Bsc. Degree in InfoSec and a PhD. In Malware Analysis, I guess the future will tell about that; I have several certificates including CompTIA, CHFI and others and I am still working on getting more of them. During my free time, I like to go online and make publications on my ResearchGate and Medium, which is currently what I’m mostly notable for in the cybersecurity field. While I mostly focus on Ethical Hacking and Cybersecurity (Which is what the courses here will be about), I do OSINT as well, Making Music, Threat Intelligence and other cyber related tasks; I used to be a Game Developer as well and you can always check out my GitHub to find out some Source Codes of the games I’ve made, which I mostly use GDevelop Engine for; I also do Occult Tasks and I’m an author of an Occult Book as well, planning to make more books in the future as well. I am also on news articles and magazines as well. You can Google my name to find out more about me and hit me up at anytime on my socials if you need to need to know anything referencing IT, Cyber-Security or any of the above mentioned topics. More links to learn more about me are accessible over my Facebook and LinkTree as well. Thanks.