Ports and Protocols

I can’t stress enough how important it is to secure a host’s ports and protocols. They are the doorways into an operating system. Think about it: An open doorway is a plain and simple invitation for disaster. And that disaster could be caused by one of many different types of malicious network attacks. The security administrator must be ever vigilant in monitoring, auditing, and implementing updated defense mechanisms to combat malicious attacks. Understanding ports and protocols is the first step in this endeavor.

Ports Ranges, Inbound Versus Outbound, and Common Ports

Although many readers of this book are familiar with ports used by the network adapter and operating system, a review of them is necessary because they play a big role in securing hosts and will most definitely appear on the exam in some way, shape, or form.