Remote-access Guide

secure remote access vpn

by Camden Heidenreich Published 2 years ago Updated 2 years ago
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A remote access VPN works by creating a virtual tunnel between an employee's device and the company's network. This tunnel goes through the public internet but the data sent back and forth through it is protected by encryption and security protocols to help keep it private and secure.Mar 11, 2020

Which VPN is best for remote access?

Perimeter 81 – Best all-round business VPN. Jul 2022. ... GoodAccess – Security Strategy Options. Apps Available: ... ExpressVPN – Lightning Fast VPN. ... Windscribe – VPN with Enterprise-Friendly Features. ... VyprVPN – Secure VPN with Business Packages. ... NordVPN – Security-first VPN. ... Surfshark – VPN with Unlimited User Connections.

What is the difference between remote access and a VPN?

A VPN is a smaller private network that runs on top of a larger public network, while Remote Desktop is a type of software that allows users to remotely control a computer. 2. Remote Desktop allows access and control to a specific computer, while VPN only allows access to shared network resources.

How does VPN remote access work?

A VPN is a private network that uses a public network (usually the internet) to connect remote sites or users together. The VPN uses "virtual" connections routed through the internet from the business's private network or a third-party VPN service to the remote site or person.

What is secure remote access?

Secure Remote Access is a combination of security processes or solutions that are designed to prevent unauthorized access to an organization's digital assets and prevent the loss of sensitive data.

Is VPN safer than remote desktop?

Is a VPN more secure than a remote desktop? Security and privacy is a VPN's greatest advantage. RDPs don't have to offer robust encryption to work, but a VPN without powerful encryption isn't much of a VPN.

Why would you use RDS instead of VPN?

The data is decrypted only at the intended destination. RDS – In RDS, the data is stored on the remote server and not on the end-point device. Hence, any threat to the end-point device does not cause data loss.

What are the disadvantages of VPN?

VPN disadvantages#1: Not designed for continuous use. The use case for remote access VPN was never to connect an entire enterprise to the WAN. ... #2: Complexity impedes scalability. ... #3: Lack of granular security. ... #4: Unpredictable performance. ... #5: Unreliable availability.

Can you be tracked if you use VPN?

However, if you use a poor quality VPN, you could still be tracked. A premium quality VPN encrypts data and hides your IP address by routing your activity through a VPN server; even if someone tries to monitor your traffic, all they'll see is the VPN server's IP and complete gibberish.

Does a VPN work anywhere?

Remote Access: A remote access VPN means your employees can log on to your company network from anywhere that has access to the Internet. Whether they are in the coffee shop, traveling, or (hopefully) social isolating at home, a VPN allows your employees to access all the resources they need to get the job done.

How do I setup a secure remote access?

Basic Security Tips for Remote DesktopUse strong passwords. ... Use Two-factor authentication. ... Update your software. ... Restrict access using firewalls. ... Enable Network Level Authentication. ... Limit users who can log in using Remote Desktop. ... Set an account lockout policy.

Is remote access safe?

Remote access solutions could leave you vulnerable. If you don't have proper security solutions in place, remote connections could act as a gateway for cybercriminals to access your devices and data. Hackers could use remote desktop protocol (RDP) to remotely access Windows computers in particular.

How do I create a secure remote access?

7 Best Practices For Securing Remote Access for EmployeesDevelop a Cybersecurity Policy For Remote Workers. ... Choose a Remote Access Software. ... Use Encryption. ... Implement a Password Management Software. ... Apply Two-factor Authentication. ... Employ the Principle of Least Privilege. ... Create Employee Cybersecurity Training.

Do you need a VPN for remote desktop?

By default, Windows Remote Desktop will only work on your local network. To access Remote Desktop over the Internet, you'll need to use a VPN or forward ports on your router.

Does remote desktop use VPN?

In order to fully secure a remote desktop, a VPN is the best option. With a VPN like Access Server, you have secure access to the network, and then the VPN server has least a privilege access policy setup that would limit an employee to using a remote desktop to connect only to his or her computer's IP address.

What is the difference between RAS and VPN server?

Information sent over a VPN is secure, it«s both authenticated and encrypted, while information sent via RAS lacks these security features. Although RAS served a purpose in providing LAN access to remote users, its time has clearly passed.

What do you need for remote access?

Remote computer access requires a reliable internet connection. You'll need to activate or install software on the device you want to access, as well as on the device — or devices — you want to use to get that access.

How does a NAS work?

Users connect to the NAS over the internet in order to use a remote access VPN. In order to sign in to the VPN, the NAS requires that users provide valid credentials. To authenticate these credentials, the NAS uses either its own authentication process or a separate authentication server running on the network .

What is remote access VPN?

What is a remote access VPN? Businesses use remote access VPNs to establish a secure connection between their network and the devices used by remote workers. Once connected, employees are able to access the resources on the network just as if their devices were physically plugged in at the office.

What is site to site VPN?

A site-to-site VPN uses a secure gateway to connect a network at one location to one or more networks at another location. This type of VPN doesn’t require each device at the end location to have a VPN client installed because the gateway handles the traffic.

Is remote access VPN secure?

Since remote access VPNs are affordable and secure, organizations can feel more comfortable with letting their employees work from home or while traveling.

Is VPN a security initiative?

Top VPN brands join security initiative. Ethics and VPN: the industry needs to aim higher. While VPNs have grown increasingly popular among users looking to protect their data and privacy online, using the right type of VPN can make all the difference when working remotely.

Where does Anthony live?

After living and working in South Korea for seven years, Anthony now resides in Houston, Texas where he writes about a variety of technology topics for ITProPortal and TechRadar. He has been a tech enthusiast for as long as he can remember and has spent countless hours researching and tinkering with PCs, mobile phones and game consoles.

What is remote access VPN?

What Is a Remote Access VPN? A remote access virtual private network (VPN) enables users who are working remotely to securely access and use applications and data that reside in the corporate data center and headquarters, encrypting all traffic the users send and receive. The remote access VPN does this by creating a tunnel between an ...

Why is VPN remote access?

The remote access VPN does this by creating a tunnel between an organization’s network and a remote user that is “virtually private,” even though the user may be in a public location. This is because the traffic is encrypted, which makes it unintelligible to any eavesdropper.

What are the advantages of using a SASE?

Some advantages of using a SASE are that it allows companies to: Apply security policies consistently across multiple locations and enforce least-privileged access. Simplify IT infrastructure and reduce costs by using a single cloud-based solution instead of having to buy and manage multiple point products.

Does SASE require a VPN?

Using SASE, an organization does not have to maintain a separate stand-alone proxy or VPN. Rather, users connect to a SASE solution (which provides access to the cloud and data center) with consistent security. Some advantages of using a SASE are that it allows companies to:

How does ZTNA work?

If a user is looking to access another private application simultaneously or even from another device, ZTNA spins up different microtunnels. VPNs use a single tunnel per user through which all apps run. ZTNA improves your security posture by drastically reducing your attack surface.

Why are IPs never exposed to the internet?

IPs are never exposed to the internet, creating a “darknet” and making the network impossible to find. Apps segmentation ensures that once users are authorized, application access is granted on a one-to-one basis so that authorized users have access only to specific applications rather than full access to the network.

Why is VPN so bad?

Trust is inherent and often excessive for those inside the network. 2. There is a increased risk of external access to the network.

How does ZTNA improve security?

ZTNA improves your security posture by drastically reducing your attack surface. Application access is decoupled from network access. ZTNA moves away from network-centric security and instead focuses on securing the connection between user and application.

What is ZTNA security?

ZTNA takes a user-to-application approach rather than a network-centric approach to security . The network becomes deemphasized, and the internet becomes the new corporate network, leveraging end-to-end encrypted TLS micro-tunnels instead of MPLS.

What is ZTNA in IT?

In response to today’s needs, IT teams leverage zero trust network access (ZTNA) as a new framework for enabling secure remote access to off-network users. ZTNA is a term defined by Gartner, and the technology is also known as a software-defined perimeter (SDP). ZTNA provides secure access to your private enterprise applications, whether they’re hosted in public clouds, private clouds, or the data center, without the need for a VPN. ZTNA is based on an adaptive trust model, where trust is never implicit, and access is granted on a “need-to-know,” least-privileged basis defined by granular policies. Because it’s 100 percent software-defined, ZTNA solutions require no physical appliances but can be deployed in any environment to support all REST-API applications.

Can a VPN be found by adversaries?

Opening the network in this way enables it to be “found” by your remote users, but it also means it can be found by adversaries. They can (and do) exploit the VPN attack surface to infiltrate the network, deliver malware such as ransomware, launch denial-of-service attacks, and exfiltrate critical business data.

Secure Remote Access for Employees and Vendors

Traditional remote access methods, such as RDP, Virtual Private Networks, and legacy remote desktop tools lack granular access management controls. These processes enable easy exploits via stolen credentials and session hijacking. Extending remote access to your vendors makes matters even worse.

Privileged Remote Access: Use Cases

BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access controls, manages, and audits remote privileged access to critical IT systems by authorized employees and third-party vendors. No VPN required.

Remote Support: Use Cases

BeyondTrust Remote Support allows help desk teams to securely access and fix any remote device on any platform, located anywhere in the world. All with the same solution.

Secure Remote Access and Remote Support Features

BeyondTrust Remote Support and Privileged Remote Access solutions work hand-in-hand to secure remote access points within the enterprise, including employees, vendors, third-parties, and more.

Granular Remote Access Control Without a VPN

Provide your IT administration teams, outsourced IT, and third-party vendors with secure, granular access to critical infrastructure resources regardless of location and without the hassles and inherent risk of a virtual private network (VPN).

Secure Privileged Access for On-Site and Remote Administration

Grant your internal or outsourced administrators secure, context-aware access to a controlled set of servers and network devices.

Secure Access to Servers, Network Devices and IaaS

IT users launch SSH and RDP sessions for resources directly from the Centrify Portal or familiar local clients.

Grant Access to Specific Resources

Unlike a VPN that exposes your entire network to users (including attackers), Centrify provides targeted access to surgically place the user on a specific system.

Anytime, Anywhere Access

Internal or outsourced IT admins can log in and securely access resources from any location that can reach the Centrify Platform. Include more robust protection for user logins outside the corporate network by enforcing multi-factor authentication (MFA) for increased identity assurance.

Break-Glass Access to Passwords from a Mobile Device

Get controlled, emergency access to privileged account passwords from your mobile device enrolled in the Centrify Platform. Secured password checkout requires a PIN or fingerprint validation. Checked-out passwords are time-limited and automatically expire to minimize the risk of password misuse.

Strengthen Protection for Privileged Access to Critical Systems with Risk-Based MFA

Guard against cyber-attacks by combining risk-level with role-based access controls, user context, and multi-factor authentication (MFA). Adaptive MFA uses artificial intelligence to compare the context of a user’s secure remote access request to a behavioral baseline to determine risk, and automate real-time decisions on whether to require MFA.

How secure is VPN?

How secure is a VPN? Many VPN providers claim to be the best at protecting sensitive personal information when employees connect to public networks. And in some instances, the VPN client does work as promised. By providing a strong encrypted connection on IT-manged devices, these solutions focus on safeguarding private information ...

Why is VPN not secure?

The reason? Unlike zero trust security solutions, traditional networking models put blind trust in users.

What does it mean to connect to a VPN server?

Connecting to a VPN server means all the traffic is backhauled to a datacenter. That obviously includes not only the business traffic, but personal traffic as well. With Citrix Workspace, employee data stays private because only corporate data is sent through the data center.

Why are VPNs so hard to scale?

VPNs are hard to scale and create a poor user experience. Most VPN services were deployed to serve a small percentage of a remote workforce. When most of the workforce is remote, VPNs become bottlenecks, especially when delivering traditional client-server applications that consume a lot of bandwidth.

Why is VPN important?

Here’s why: VPN security works to shield online activity from hackers and Internet Service Providers when employees work remotely . Its sole job is to shield online activity from snoops and spies looking to steal sensitive data. What it doesn’t account for is all the ways your attack surface is expanding.

What is the risk of VPN?

There’s a high risk of security breaches. VPNs expose entire networks to threats like distributed denial-of-service (DDoS), sniffing and spoofing attacks. Once an attacker or malware has breached a network through a compromised user device connected to it, it can bring down an entire network.

Is VPN safe?

It's not as safe as you may think. Remote work and business travel. Public WiFi networks and prying eyes. Data security and personal privacy. These are among the top reasons companies choose to use virtual private networks. But do VPNs really provide the protection you’ve been promised? A lot has changed in the decades since VPN services first came ...

Why are VPNs so vulnerable?

As the security landscape has developed, it has become apparent that VPNs are too vulnerable to be used to facilitate connections like these because they are not set up to give any significant, granular control. Just look at the recent vulnerability reports around some of the most popular VPNs on the market — such as Pulse Secure™, ...

What is the best way to secure access to resources?

Allow secure access to the resources required, but not the entire network. Ensure that only the admin is taking actions on the resources. Provide granular privilege – not everyone with access needs complete administrative access.

Why rely on VPNs?

But relying on VPNs rather than maintaining consistent security postures will create more risk and vulnerability to breaches.

Why do organizations use virtual private networks?

Most organizations will opt for virtual private networks (VPNs) to enable employees, vendors and third parties to access their network systems remotely.

Is VPN better than nothing?

A VPN may be serviceable and better than nothing, but there are far better options available that provide more granular control, reduce risk, and enable outsourced IT without the need of including administrators in Active Directory.

Is it hard to keep data locked down in the office?

Millions of people are now handling sensitive work data outside their office for the first time. It can be hard enough to keep data locked down in the office, where there are IT security officers to monitor the network, and employees are in their ‘work mindset.’.

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