AUTOMATIC COMMUNICATION NETWORK SYSTEM HARDENING

A method for automatically improving security of a network system (10) comprises: collecting security relevant information (30') from network devices (14) of the network system (10), the security relevant information (30') including security settings (32) and operational information (34) of the network devices (14); analyzing the security relevant information (30') for determining weak security settings (32') of a network device (14), the weak security settings (32') being not necessary for a regular operation of the network system (10); determining hardened security settings (32") for the network device (14) based on the weak security settings (32'), the hardened security settings (32") restricting a possible operation of the network device (14) but allow a regular operation of the network system (10); and applying the hardened security settings (32") to the network device (14).