A new startup company with very limited funds wants to protect the organization from external threats by implementing some type of best practice security controls across a number of hosts located in the application zone, the production zone, and the core network. The 50 hosts in the core network are a mixture of Windows and Linux based systems, used by development staff to develop new applications.
The single Windows host in the application zone is used exclusively by the production team to control software deployments into the production zone. There are 10 UNIX web application hosts in the production zone which are publically accessible.
Development staff is required to install and remove various types of software from their hosts on a regular basis while the hosts in the zone rarely require any type of configuration changes.
Which of the following when implemented would provide the BEST level of protection with the LEAST amount of disruption to staff?