An endpoint is where most attacks land and where most evidence lives. Hardening reduces the number of easy wins; EDR gives you a chance to see the ones that remain.
A practical baseline
You do not need a 400-page benchmark to start. Cover the high-value basics:
- Patch the operating system and browser on a predictable cadence.
- Remove local administrator rights from daily-use accounts.
- Enable full-disk encryption and secure the recovery keys.
- Turn on the host firewall and restrict inbound services.
- Enable application control where the workflow allows it.
- Enable logging for process creation, PowerShell and authentication.
- Install EDR and confirm it is actually reporting.
- Disable unused services and remove stale software.
Application control
Application control allows only approved binaries to run. It is one of the strongest controls against unknown malware, and one of the easiest to get wrong. Start with audit mode, learn what your users actually run, then enforce in rings.
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