Nine essential steps of a server hardening process. Your servers allow endpoints to perform various actions such as providing resources, services, or data to the clients. However, they're also prone to cyber attacks because they can reach other parts of your IT environment. Hi, I'm JP with Ninja One. In this video, we'll answer the question, what is server harden, and walk you through the nine crucial steps in the process. Before we get started, make sure to subscribe now to our IT video hub. So you never missed out on smart IT tips and powerful solutions from Ninja one. What is server hardening? Server hardening is a process of protecting and securing server infrastructure against cyber attacks. It creates a more secure server environment, minimizes vulnerabilities and protects your data from threats. If you don't have a server hardening process, your organization risks, data breaches, data loss, reputational damage, and costly downtime. The nine steps of a server hardening process, follow these nine essential steps of a server hardening process to safeguard your servers, secure your server location. Place your server in a secure location that can be locked and accessed only by approved staff. Factoring control temperatures and proximity to technicians. When choosing your location control. Access permissions. Implement the principle of lease privilege by ensuring that critical systems configurations and operations are only accessible of those who need them. Set up a firewall. A firewall separates a computer network from external sources and acts as a security system that monitors incoming and outgoing traffic. Set up a firewall to monitor your server and block unwanted traffic. Manage configurations. Track server configurations like user server, network and network time protocol or NTP server configurations to ensure consistency across your devices. Secure user accounts. Keep usernames and passwords private. Use strong, unique passwords and enable multi-factor authentication to protect user accounts from hackers. Apply patches to vulnerabilities. Cyber criminals often exploit server software vulnerabilities. You can use patch management software to automate the deployment of security patches and reduce the risk of human error in leaving some software unpatched. Remove unnecessary software uninstall applications that are no longer in use. Unused software can make it easier for hackers to compromise your server without your knowledge. Plan a backup strategy. Backup your server data to prevent crucial organizational information from being lost in a cyber attack. Rely on backup software to protect and recover data. Continuously monitor your server. Leverage real-time server monitoring to respond quickly when issues arise. Moderating tools show which users are accessing your servers, what they're doing, and whether they're accessing specific server airings. Make server hardening easier for your IT team. By investing in an automated endpoint management solution like Ninja one, it simplifies many aspects of server heartening from patch management and software deployment to configuration management and remote access control. Click the link below to try Ninja One's endpoint management solution for free.