Naomi is preparing a laptop for a traveling salesperson who frequently needs to connect to untrusted hotel networks. What hardening technique can she use to provide the greatest protection against network-based attacks on untrusted networks?

A host-based firewall is an excellent first line of defense for systems that will be deployed to untrusted networks. EDR and XDR are useful for preventing malicious software installs like ransomware, but they do not directly protect against network-based attacks, and disk encryption is a confidentiality control, not a useful tool to prevent network-based attacks.