Hardening involves strengthening systems, devices, or software by removing unnecessary services, applying security patches, and enforcing strict configurations. The goal is to reduce vulnerabilities and minimize the attack surface.

Techniques include disabling unused ports, enforcing strong authentication, and continuous monitoring. Hardened environments are less susceptible to breaches and are essential for critical infrastructure and cloud deployments. Hedgehog supports hardening best practices by automating secure configurations, simplifying patch management, and providing built-in monitoring and policy enforcement across network fabrics.

Alternatives or complements include network segmentation, zero trust architectures, or using managed security services for additional protection. Hedgehog’s flexible architecture also enables advanced segmentation and integration with zero trust and managed security solutions, further enhancing network resilience.