What Is Port 445 (SMB)? Strategies for Secure Network Communication

This blog post explains the role and risks of TCP port 445 (SMB) in Windows networks, recounts historic abuses such as WannaCry and NotPetya, and provides 11 mitigation strategies—including patching, disabling SMBv1, firewall rules, VPN use, IDS deployment, network segmentation, vulnerability scanning, staff training, SMB traffic restriction, backups, and strong access controls—while urging vendors and supply-chain monitoring to avoid exposing the port.