Will hardening slow our systems down?

Some of it is invisible, and some of it is felt: a shorter session timeout, a second factor at sign-in, a limit on repeated requests. Where a change has a cost in convenience we say what it is before applying it, and the balance can be adjusted with you. The aim is to raise the cost for somebody who should not be there, not to make the system annoying for people who should.

Can you work on systems we host somewhere else?

Yes, where we can be given administrative access or work with somebody who has it, and where the provider's own rules are respected. If access cannot be arranged, we write the changes down precisely enough for your provider to apply them, and we say what still needs confirming afterwards.

What happens if a change breaks something?

Changes are applied in an agreed window, in an order, one at a time where that matters, and each is recorded as it goes in so it can be reversed. Testing takes place before applying wherever the system allows it, and you hear what changed before you hear that something stopped working.

Cyber security

Security hardening

Most of what gets used against a small organisation is not clever. It is a default password, an update nobody applied, an account nobody removed, or a setting left open because it made something work once. Hardening is the unglamorous work of closing those, in an order that can be explained.

Businesses running their own servers or cloud accounts, organisations that have just been given findings to close, and teams who have inherited a system nobody has ever configured deliberately.

How we work through security hardening

Start from the configuration, not from the tools

Hardening begins with an inventory: what actually runs, who holds an account, and which services are reachable from outside. Anything nobody can account for is removed rather than watched, and every change is written down, because a setting nobody can find later is a setting nobody dares touch.

An inventory of systems, accounts and exposed services
Default credentials and unused services closed or removed
Every change recorded, with what it was and why it was made

Accounts and access

Access is where most incidents begin and end, and the work is administratively dull: separating everyday accounts from administrative ones, requiring a second factor for anything reachable from outside, and removing access when somebody leaves as part of the offboarding rather than a month afterwards.

Multi-factor authentication on anything reachable from outside
Administrative access separated from everyday accounts
Access removed when somebody leaves, as part of leaving
Shared logins replaced or documented, because one password in four hands is four people to ask

Updates, backups, and rules nothing can quietly change

Software falls behind continuously, so updates are applied on a schedule you know about, and anything no longer supported by its maker is named rather than left running hopefully. Network rules and access policies are recorded and reviewed, passwords and keys are kept out of code, and logging is switched on.

A patching schedule you can see, and unsupported software named
Backups taken, stored away from the system they came from, and a restore tested
Network and access rules recorded, so nothing can be changed quietly
Passwords and keys kept out of code and out of documents people forward

Then prove it is still hard

A configuration is a state rather than an achievement: it drifts with every update and every new member of staff. The changes are recorded as a baseline, re-checked at an interval agreed in advance and again after anything significant moves. None of this makes a system unbreakable, and we will not describe it that way.

A baseline document of how things stand and why
Re-checked at the agreed interval, and after any change
A plain statement of what hardening does, and what it does not

What you receive

A written inventory of systems, accounts and exposed services
Configuration changes applied, recorded and explained
Multi-factor authentication and access changes
A patching and backup schedule you can see
Logging switched on where it was missing
A baseline document, re-checked on an agreed schedule

Questions we are often asked

Will hardening slow our systems down?
Some of it is invisible, and some of it is felt: a shorter session timeout, a second factor at sign-in, a limit on repeated requests. Where a change has a cost in convenience we say what it is before applying it, and the balance can be adjusted with you. The aim is to raise the cost for somebody who should not be there, not to make the system annoying for people who should.
Can you work on systems we host somewhere else?
Yes, where we can be given administrative access or work with somebody who has it, and where the provider's own rules are respected. If access cannot be arranged, we write the changes down precisely enough for your provider to apply them, and we say what still needs confirming afterwards.
What happens if a change breaks something?
Changes are applied in an agreed window, in an order, one at a time where that matters, and each is recorded as it goes in so it can be reversed. Testing takes place before applying wherever the system allows it, and you hear what changed before you hear that something stopped working.

One studio

What this connects to.

The other service lines this one meets on a real project, and what the two of them share.

Vulnerability assessment
An assessment produces the list; this is the work that closes it and the reason the next list is shorter.
Penetration testing
Testing proves whether configuration holds under pressure, which is the only way to know the hardening was real.
Hosting and ongoing support
Once hardened, a system has to stay that way, and the update schedule is what keeps it there between reviews.

Next step

Talk to us about security hardening.

A short description of the project is enough to start. We will reply with how we would approach it, what it needs and what it would take.

Start a project shasaistudio@pm.me 0799 003 003