Securing Linux Servers
by Chris Brown
Linux is widely used to host critical services in Internet-facing settings. This course will show you how to take control of your servers, assess their vulnerability, and significantly reduce their attack surface by hardening the system.
What you'll learn
It is a fact of life that any server that connects directly to the Internet can be attacked. In this course, Securing Linux Servers, you'll learn best practices to reduce the attack surface of those systems. First, you'll learn to take control of booting your machines and see how to assess their vulnerability using a range of open-source tools. Next, you'll put into place some simple best practices to harden them and learn the benefits of SELinux in mitigating the potential damage of 0-day vulnerabilities. Finally, you'll learn how to check the integrity of your file system and detect suspicious activity. No training can claim to make your servers 100% secure, but after completing this course, you'll certainly be able to remove the low-hanging fruit from the reach of would-be attackers. The course uses CentOS7 or RHEL7, plus a number of readily-available open-source tools.
About the author
Dr. Chris Brown has been using UNIX as a software developer and system administrator since its pioneering
days over 30 years ago, and has used Linux professionally and at home for about 10 years. He has
extensive experience in curriculum design, and in addition to Linux training he has written hands-on courses
in UNIX/Linux system programming, network programming, PHP, and distributed computing, and has edited
and provided instructional design support for many others.
In addition to his ... moretime as a Research Fellow at Sheffield University, Chris has had a “proper job” as a
Product Manager for the training company Learning Tree International, which saw him living and working in
Virginia, USA for a while.
Dr. Brown has taught UNIX and Linux extensively for more than 25 years, mostly in Europe and the USA but
also in Canada, India, Hong Kong, Brazil and Saudi Arabia. He provided in-depth technical training on SUSE
Linux to Novell’s consultants and IT engineers. He developed training content for Canonical’s “Ubuntu
Certified Professional” training and wrote their “Deploying Ubuntu Server” course, and was master trainer for
their train-the-trainer program. More recently he has worked with FOSSFA (Free Software and Open
Source Foundation for Africa) to develop LPI training content. He is author of the book “UNIX Distributed
Programming” published by Prentice Hall, and of “SUSE Linux” published by O’Reilly. He also writes a
regular column for the UK magazine “Linux Format”.
He is an ardent supporter of Linux and the Open Source movement and brings an enthusiasm, experience,
depth of knowledge, and humour to the classroom to make for an effective and enjoyable learning
experience.
Chris holds a BA in theoretical physics, an MA, and a Ph.D. in particle physics, all from Cambridge
University. He also has RedHat RHCE, Novell NCLP and Ubuntu UCP qualifications and is a Ubuntu
Certified Instructor.