Exam CAS-004 topic 1 question 515 discussion

Hardening refers to the process of securing a system by reducing its vulnerabilities and attack surfaces. In this case, hardening the engineering workstations with a common strategy means applying consistent security measures across all workstations to address the identified weaknesses, such as: Unsupported, end-of-life operating systems: These systems are no longer updated or patched, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation. Hardening would involve upgrading to supported systems or applying compensating controls to mitigate risks. Lack of security controls for systems with supported operating systems: This could mean configuring the systems with proper security settings, such as firewalls, access controls, patch management, and security software. Little uniformity of installed software: A hardening strategy would standardize the software installed across the workstations, eliminating unnecessary or outdated software, and ensuring that only the necessary applications are running.

D. Having a Common standard hints at complaince and satifies the 3rd Observation. Hardening the systems would cover the first 2 Observations.