Lowering your attack surface
After setting up a new server, an administrator should always perform a security check to ensure that it's as secure as it can possibly be. No administrator can think of everything and even the best among us can make a mistake, but it's always important that we do our best to ensure we secure a server as much as we can. There are many ways you can secure a server, but the first thing you should do is lower your attack surface. This means that you should close as many holes as you can, and limit the number of things that outsiders can potentially be able to access. In a nutshell, if it's not required to be available from the outside, lock it down. If it's not necessary at all, remove it.
To start inspecting your attack surface, the first thing you should do is see which ports are listening for network connections. When an attacker wants to break into your server, it's almost certain that a port scan is the first thing they will perform...
