securing and protecting the OS

For this week, we’re going to focus on the fourth and fifth controls of the CIS 18.

For your initial discussion post, please answer the following:

What goes into a secure configuration process? Can baselines assist with this process?
What is automatic session locking and how can it be implemented on Windows devices?
What is the built-in firewall on both Linux and on Windows? How does configuring this work (for your example, discuss how one would make a rule that allows the port 80 inbound from any source).
What default accounts exist on Windows? What about on Linux? What are the best practices for securing these?
Are there tools that can help automate the discovery and documenting of accounts that exist on both Windows and Linux devices? Where should this information be kept, and how should it be secured?
Are there automated tools that can help with maintaining a unique password for every account? Should this be supplemented with policy? Why or why not?
What methods exist to identify dormant accounts (let’s assume the policy requires accounts to be disabled after 35 days of inactivity).
Should administrator accounts be shared? If an employee has administrative access, should they use their administrative account for all activities? Should they have a user account for some? Why or why not?

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