A system administrator wants to harden the organization's servers. Which of the following would best help to harden the servers?

Using SCAP (Security Content Automation Protocol) scans is the most effective method for hardening servers because it provides a standardized approach to assess and ensure compliance with security policies. SCAP allows organizations to automate vulnerability management, measurement, and compliance checking by using a collection of specifications.

When a SCAP scan is conducted, it evaluates the system against predefined security benchmarks and guidelines. This helps identify configuration issues, missing patches, and other vulnerabilities that need to be addressed to improve the overall security posture of the servers. The use of SCAP can also facilitate continuous monitoring and regular assessments, ensuring that the servers remain compliant with security standards over time.

While vulnerability scans, protocol analyzers, and port scans are useful in certain contexts, they do not offer the comprehensive framework that SCAP provides for ongoing compliance and security hardening. Vulnerability scans identify existing vulnerabilities but may not specifically focus on compliance with security configurations. Protocol analyzers help in monitoring network traffic and identifying potential malicious activity, but they do not directly assess the server configurations. Port scans check for open ports and services running on a server, but again, they do not encompass the holistic approach provided by SCAP in terms of hardening and compliance checks.