Meaning – The term hardening, refers to the process of disabling nonsecure software on the machine where the IBM Firewall is being installed.
Usually, the firewall is used to restrict malicious software from crashing the system, but there are some software packages, that are already installed on the system, that can bypass the newly installed firewall and keep messing up with the system. Therefore, in order to secure the system, it is recommended that we delete all third-party software packages, install the firewall and then proceed with re-installing the packages. This process is called hardening.
Once the firewall is installed, you can proceed with re-installing the software, only this time, the firewall will scan the software and if there is any problem detected, it will restrict the package immediately.
Example of usage – “The gamer had to remove all the games and patches he had installed on his system, before installing the new firewall on the PC.”
