Hardening Monitoring and Detection
RCCE students will learn endpoint hardening methodologies including operating system configuration lockdown, unnecessary service removal, registry hardening, group policy enforcement, application whitelisting, and CIS Benchmark implementation. RCCE students will learn to apply hardening baselines to Windows, Linux, and macOS systems, reduce the attack surface by disabling unused ports and protocols, configure host-based firewalls and intrusion prevention, implement secure boot and firmware protection, manage local administrator accounts, and validate hardening effectiveness through vulnerability scanning and compliance auditing. This monitoring course teaches comprehensive detection and observability strategies for proactive security operations. Starting from foundational concepts, RCCE students will learn to instrument systems for security telemetry, build detection pipelines, configure alerting, and maintain monitoring coverage as environments evolve. Students gain the visibility and detection capabilities needed to catch threats early.
- Endpoint Security Engineers and EDR Analysts
- Windows and macOS Administrators managing privileges
- Identity and Access Management Engineers
- IT Security Operations Leads reducing attack surface
- Professionals implementing Hardening Monitoring and Detection
- Monitor and audit privilege usage; detect escalation attempts
- Explain Course Overview fundamentals
- Execute hands-on tasks for endpoint hardening
- Monitor and audit privilege usage; detect escalation attempts, including Learning Outcomes.
- Execute hands-on tasks for why endpoint hardening matters
- Measure attack surface reduction and program effectiveness — covering Default OS configurations are insecure by design.
- Execute hands-on tasks for the hardening lifecycle
- Execute hands-on tasks for lifecycle phases — covering Assess: inventory assets and current state.
- Execute hands-on tasks for windows hardening — covering Disable SMBv1, LLMNR, NetBIOS, Linux Hardening, Disable root SSH login.
- Execute hands-on tasks for restrict powershell execution policies — covering Linux Hardening, Disable root SSH login.
- Execute hands-on tasks for linux hardening — covering Disable root SSH login.
- Execute hands-on tasks for windows registry hardening
| Module 01 | Hardening Monitoring |
| Module 02 | Course Overview |
| Module 03 | Endpoint Hardening |
| Module 04 | Monitoring & Detection |
| Module 05 | Why Endpoint Hardening Matters |
| Module 06 | Attack Surface Reduction |
| Module 07 | The Hardening Lifecycle |
| Module 08 | Lifecycle Phases |
| Module 09 | Windows Hardening |
| Module 10 | Restrict PowerShell execution policies |
| Module 11 | Linux Hardening |
| Module 12 | Windows Registry Hardening |
| Module 13 | High-Priority Registry Paths |
| Module 14 | Authentication Hardening |
All hands-on labs run on Rocheston Rose X OS. Students practice hardening monitoring and detection by implementing the controls discussed in class, with a focus on real-world deployment, monitoring, and validation.
- Lab 1: Monitor and audit privilege usage; detect escalation attempts
- Lab 2: Explain Course Overview fundamentals
- Lab 3: Execute hands-on tasks for endpoint hardening
- Lab 4: Monitor and audit privilege usage; detect escalation attempts
- Lab 5: Execute hands-on tasks for why endpoint hardening matters
Upon successful completion of this course, students will receive an official RCCE Course Completion Certificate for Hardening Monitoring and Detection, verifiable through the Rocheston certification portal.
- Full access to all course materials and slide decks
- Hands-on lab access on Rocheston Rose X OS environment
- Access to Rocheston CyberNotes
- Access to Rocheston Zelfire — EDR/XDR SIEM platform
- Access to Rocheston Raven — online cyber range exercise platform
- Access to Rocheston Vulnerability Vines AI