Bottom-up digital autonomy: the importance of fortifying computer systems

In the digital age, digital sovereignty has become a crucial concern for organisations and nations alike. One essential step towards achieving this goal is consistent system hardening, a proactive security measure that focuses on reducing the attack surface of operating systems and applications before they can be exploited in cyber attacks.

System hardening solutions, available online, provide resources for setting up Secure Boot on Gentoo Linux and addressing common myths versus reality about system hardening. One such solution is the Enforce Administrator, a professional system hardening tool designed in Germany. This tool offers automated and comprehensive system hardening, reducing attack surfaces, ensuring continuous protection, and automating processes, monitoring, and optimization.

The Enforce Administrator is particularly valuable for understaffed IT departments, as it helps maintain minimal attack surfaces and lasting protection. It supports digital sovereignty by enabling secure configuration and ongoing monitoring of operating systems and applications, integrating well into projects like Windows 11 rollouts and also supporting Linux systems.

Legal requirements, such as DORA, can be implemented quickly with system hardening solutions that feature integrated automation. However, a comprehensive security concept is necessary for achieving real resilience. This concept should include regular penetration tests, employee training, and incident response plans.

The digitalization of the past few decades has created new dependencies and risks for states, businesses, and administrations. System hardening, while not a replacement for firewalls, antivirus software, or intrusion detection, is a useful addition to these measures. It can be integrated into existing processes, such as a Windows 11 rollout project, and applies to Linux systems as well.

The importance of digital sovereignty is growing, as organisations must make their IT efficient, secure, and resilient to remain independent and capable of action. In line with this, the ZenDiS (Center for Digital Sovereignty of the Public Administration) has been launched in Germany to promote digital sovereignty.

Moreover, more and more industry associations and individual companies are working to make Germany and Europe more digitally sovereign. The IT security landscape is constantly changing, requiring continuous process implementation, monitoring, and optimization. System hardening, as a preventive security measure with a big impact, plays a significant role in this ongoing process.