Certified: The Security+ Prepcast

Firewalls are one of the oldest and most trusted tools in network defense, but today’s environments require more than just simple packet filtering. In this episode, we dive into the evolution of fire…

Every port on your network is a potential doorway, and port security ensures those doors stay locked unless explicitly authorized. In this episode, we examine how technologies like 802.1X enforce por…

Load balancers and network sensors are often associated with performance and visibility—but they are just as critical to your security architecture. In this episode, we explore how load balancers not…

Security isn’t just about policies and firewalls—it’s also about the capabilities and placement of the physical and virtual devices enforcing them. In this episode, we explore key device attributes s…

Connectivity powers modern organizations, but with it comes risk—especially when failure modes are not considered in the security design. In this episode, we explore what happens when devices or serv…

Securing infrastructure starts with design decisions about where and how devices are placed, how data flows, and where trust boundaries begin and end. In this episode, we focus on device placement an…

In this final installment on architectural considerations, we focus on risk transference, ease of recovery, and the practical realities of patch availability and compute resources. Risk transference …

Responsiveness, scalability, and ease of deployment are three more pillars that heavily influence secure architecture decisions, especially in environments where adaptability is key. In this episode,…

Designing secure systems means weighing a variety of architectural considerations, and in this episode, we begin by focusing on availability, resilience, and cost. We explain how availability is main…

Availability is one of the core tenets of cybersecurity, and in mission-critical environments, downtime is simply not an option. In this episode, we focus on high availability (HA) architectures—desi…

Some systems require specialized architectural models due to their operational roles, legacy constraints, or real-time performance needs. In this episode, we examine security implications for environ…

Security must adapt to the architecture of the environment it protects, and that starts with understanding how infrastructure is organized. In this episode, we compare on-premises, centralized, and d…

Modern networks are no longer simple, flat environments—they are segmented, layered, and increasingly software-defined. In this episode, we explore different infrastructure security models, beginning…

Cloud computing changes the game for infrastructure design and security responsibility, requiring organizations to understand not just how services work—but who is accountable for securing them. In t…

In the final part of our system hardening series, we tackle some of the most overlooked but impactful practices: disabling unnecessary ports and services, replacing default credentials, and removing …

Continuing our exploration of system hardening, this episode focuses on host-based firewalls and intrusion prevention systems (HIPS), which defend individual devices by monitoring and controlling inb…

System hardening is about reducing the attack surface by eliminating unnecessary features, closing open ports, and enforcing strict policies across endpoints, servers, and network devices. In this ep…

Keeping systems secure isn’t just about building them right—it’s about making sure they stay that way, and knowing how to shut them down properly when they’re no longer needed. In this episode, we fo…

Monitoring and the principle of least privilege are two complementary pillars of proactive cybersecurity, enabling both visibility and access limitation. In this episode, we discuss how effective mon…