What is BitLocker? BitLocker is a tool used to encrypt Windows computers. It can use a password, PIN, or/and TPM in your computer. This is useful in case your computer gets stolen or someone tries to boot from another drive. It ensures that if someone inserts a USB flash drive with Linux on it, the attacker can’t read the files on the Windows drive or, more importantly, access the SAM file (where password hashes are stored). ...
What is the goal? The goal is to set up basic firewall rules to stop networks from communicating with each other and, more importantly, to stop IoT devices from talking to other devices. The reason we want to do this is because IoT devices are horrible for security. This is because vendors don’t update the devices or don’t update them often. If something has technology in it, it CAN AND WILL be hacked. It is a question of when and not if. So to stop other devices from being affected, just cut them off from the network. ...
What is OpenVAS? OpenVAS (Open Vulnerability Assessment System) is a comprehensive vulnerability scanner and security assessment tool. It’s part of Greenbone Security Manager and performs network security testing by scanning systems for thousands of known vulnerabilities and misconfigurations. The tool uses a regularly updated feed of Network Vulnerability Tests (NVTs) to detect security issues, provides detailed reports, and can be managed through a web interface. OpenVAS is popular among security professionals and system administrators because it’s open-source and offers capabilities similar to commercial vulnerability scanners. ...
What are ACLs? ACL (Access Control List) is a technology that allows administrators to control access to the network by filtering packets based on source/destination IP, layer 4 ports, etc. This is set on the interface either inbound or outbound. The list is processed from top to bottom. So if you have a list that goes 2,3,1, the order of processing would be 2 then 3 then 1. Types of ACL There are two types: extended and standard. The difference is that standard ACLs are only based on source IP address, but extended ACLs are based on source/destination IP addresses or port numbers. Standard ACLs can only use numbers 1-99 or 1300-1999. ...
What is OSPF? OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) is a routing protocol that automatically finds the best route to a network. It is technically a link-state protocol, which means each router in a network has a map of the network. The reason you use OSPF is that in a network with multiple routers, you would normally have to configure a route to each network on every router. This doesn’t sound too bad if you only have 2 or 3 routers, but what if you have 10, and the network changes frequently? This would take forever to maintain manually. OSPF does it automatically for you. ...