The Risks of Remote Access

Whether you’re at home or on the go, remote access gives you the power to connect with a work computer and open or edit files. It’s an essential business technology that enables employees to untether themselves from the office, boosts productivity, and increases collaboration across geographic boundaries. But the risks of using remote access must be managed carefully to reduce cybersecurity vulnerabilities and ensure compliance standards are met.

The most common way to access another computer is to use remote desktop protocol (RDP). RDP allows you to create a secure tunnel from your client device to the remote system over the Internet or through a private network. Another popular method for connecting to a remote PC is by using an Internet proxy server, which acts as a middleman between the two computers.

Once you’ve connected to the remote system, you can access a variety of different remote resources. These include RemoteApp programs, session-based desktops, and virtual desktops published by your admin in the Connection Center.

Using these tools to control other devices introduces security vulnerabilities that can be exploited by malicious entities. To mitigate these risks, organizations should put advanced security measures in place. These may include encryption, multifactor authentication, and other methods for ensuring users’ identities are verified. They should also limit the number of users who can access these tools, implement account lockout policies, and stay on top of patch management. This will prevent users from entering the wrong passwords too many times, which is a common attack vector for stealing user login credentials.