IS3340-WINDOWS SECURITY | BEST PRACTICES IN MANAGING CHANCES TO WINDOWS SYSTEMS AND APPLICATIONS | UNIT 10 DISCUSSION 1 | | | 5/29/2014 |

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Just as Ken 7 Windows Limited is experiencing Denial of Service attacks, many corporate websites have suffered from illegal DoS attacks more than once. Companies that learn how to turn these experiences to their advantage go a long way to ensuring it doesn't happen again.
The summary of what is being seen on the infrastructure is thus; * Denial of Service (DoS) attacks on the Web Servers supporting Ken 7 Windows clients. * Remote clients report connection failures/difficulty accessing Ken 7 Windows planning and order management software application
The events of a network attack can uncover some very important mistakes and provide more than a few lessons. Turning these lessons into best practices is where the rewards of such adversity are realized. Ken 7 Windows can arrive at these best practices by asking: "How are we vulnerable?" The following best practices are a sample of some of the common conclusions following a DoS attack. 1. Create a virtual private network (VPN) for authenticated user. 2. Separate authentication an anonymous users on separate servers (some on different subnets). 3. Use firewall rule to close all ports except 80 (HTTP-Hypertext Transfer Protocol) & 443 (HHTPS-Hypertext Transfer Protocol over TLS/SSL). 4. Restrict all anonymous user accounts. 5. Use Kerberos to authenticate computers. 6. Create a list of approved users Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and deny traffic not originating from a listed address (White Listing). 7. Keep an audit trail that describes what was changed and why. 8. Create interdepartmental Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and Emergency Operating Procedures (EOPs). 9. Understand that success can result in complacency. 10. Network monitoring isn't enough; your administrators must know your configuration in detail. 11. Test yourself both locally and over the Internet. 12. Your processes can harm you just like as hackers. 13. Keep people aware of old configurations and their purpose. 14. When something is different, ask why. 15. Know the trade-offs between simplicity, cost, and survivability.
This list of recommended procedures should mitigate or at least severely cut down on the ability for black-hat hackers to infiltrate the Ken7 Windows Limited network, and create reliable communication with the clients.

Works Cited
Solomon, Michael. "Microsoft Windows and the Security Life Cycle." In Security strategies in Windows platforms and applications. Sudbury, Mass.: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2011. 320-338.
Solomon, Michael. "Best Practices for Microsoft Windows and the Application Security." In Security strategies in Windows platforms and applications. Sudbury, Mass.: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2011. 341-354.