Security foundations
Baseline Hardening
Baseline hardening for endpoints, servers, and cloud environments - focused on practical controls, reduced attack surface, and measurable improvements with clear evidence.
- Reduce attack surface with practical baseline controls
- Align to CIS Benchmarks and common enterprise standards
- Deliver a clear hardening plan and verification evidence
What you get on day one
Concise scope, test plan, and outcomes your team can execute.
New environments
Best for
Or inherited infrastructure.
Endpoints / Servers / Cloud
Coverage
Based on scope.
CIS-aligned
Standards
Practical, not theoretical.
1–3 weeks
Timeline
Depends on size and access.
Why baseline hardening
Reduce attack surface with repeatable controls
Hardening is most effective when baselines are consistent, defensible, and maintainable.
Most incidents start with basic weaknesses
Default settings, excessive permissions, and poor logging create easy paths for attackers.
Consistency is the real control
Hardening works when baselines are repeatable across systems - not one-off fixes.
Measurable improvement matters
You should be able to show what changed, what risk was reduced, and how it’s maintained.
Coverage
What we harden
Scope is aligned to your environment and operational constraints.
Operating system baseline
Secure defaults, services, patch posture, local policies, and hardened configuration profiles.
Identity and access controls
Least privilege, role hygiene, MFA enforcement paths, and admin access governance.
Network exposure reduction
Firewall rules, unnecessary ports, segmentation checks, and safe remote access patterns.
Logging and telemetry baseline
What must be logged, retention targets, and evidence that telemetry is actually arriving.
Secure configuration for common services
Web servers, SSH/RDP, databases, storage access, and application runtime defaults in scope.
Cloud baseline (optional)
IAM hygiene, storage exposure, key management patterns, and account-level guardrails.
Approach
A practical hardening workflow
Define, assess, harden, and verify - built to be repeatable.
Baseline definition
Align on standards (CIS/common enterprise) and confirm scope, exceptions, and constraints.
Current-state review
Assess configuration posture and identify gaps that materially increase attack surface.
Hardening plan
Deliver prioritized changes with rollout sequencing and rollback considerations.
Implementation support (optional)
Work with your team to apply changes safely using automation where possible.
Verification
Validate configuration changes and provide evidence of baseline alignment.
Designed for operations
We consider change windows, rollback needs, and service dependencies. Hardening must improve security without breaking production.
Deliverables
Clear baselines and verification evidence
Output your team can operationalize and defend in reviews.
Baseline hardening standard
A documented baseline profile and configuration targets per system class in scope.
Prioritized hardening backlog
A practical list of changes grouped by risk reduction and implementation effort.
Verification evidence
Proof of applied controls and configuration posture suitable for internal review and audits.
Maintenance guidance
How to keep baselines intact: change control notes, periodic checks, and drift handling.
Ready when you are
Establish a secure baseline
We’ll define a practical baseline, reduce attack surface, and provide verification evidence your team can maintain.
Engagement options
Baseline build-out or remediation
Start from scratch or improve posture in an existing environment.
Baseline build-out
Define and implement a baseline for a new or growing environment.
- Baseline definition + scope
- Prioritized hardening plan
- Verification evidence
Baseline remediation
Improve posture in an existing environment with drift and inconsistencies.
- Current-state assessment
- Targeted hardening backlog
- Verification and maintenance guidance
FAQ
Before we start
Do you apply the changes for us?
We can provide implementation support, or deliver a plan your team can execute. The engagement is scoped to your needs.
Is this CIS compliance?
We align with CIS Benchmarks where appropriate, but the goal is practical risk reduction and repeatable baselines, not checkbox compliance.
How do you handle exceptions?
We document justified exceptions and compensating controls so decisions remain defensible.
Can this include cloud accounts?
Yes. We can include AWS/Azure/GCP guardrails and identity posture as part of the baseline scope.