Server hardening. The very words conjure up images of tempering soft steel into an unbreakable blade, or taking soft clay and firing it in a kiln, producing a hardened vessel that will last many years. Indeed, server hardening is very much like that.
Putting an unprotected server out on the Internet is like putting chum in the ocean water you are swimming in—it won’t be long and you’ll have a lot of excited sharks circling you, and the outcome is unlikely to be good. Everyone knows it, but sometimes under the pressure of deadlines, not to mention the inevitable push from the business interests to prioritize those things with more immediate visibility and that add to the bottom line, it can be difficult to keep up with even what threats you need to mitigate, much less the best techniques to use to do so.