AUTOMATIC COMMUNICATION NETWORK SYSTEM HARDENING

A method for automatically improving security of a network system includes: collecting security relevant information from network devices of the network system, the security relevant information including security settings and operational information of the network devices; analyzing the security relevant information for determining weak security settings of a network device, the weak security settings being not necessary for a regular operation of the network system; determining hardened security settings for the network devices based on the weak security settings, the hardened security settings restricting a possible operation of the network device but allow a regular operation of the network system; and applying the hardened security settings to the network device.