The fear of contracting the COVID-19 virus prompted many people to stay at home this year. In fact, companies have instructed their employees to do their jobs online. Unfortunately, this increases the risk of experiencing malicious cyber-attacks such as malware, data breaches, and phishing.
The radical increase in attacks has encouraged people to be more aware of security protocols to ensure a safe working space. Since humans are the weakest link in the system, employers need to evaluate remote work risks and ensure that their teams undergo cybersecurity training. With employees connecting to the work computer from home, it’s critical that they are careful when accessing sensitive data.
Although using paid or free remote access software is the most popular way to operate remotely, it can sometimes be vulnerable. Here are some of the threats you should be aware of and some tips to avoid them.
1. Brute force attacks
Today, people have countless accounts and passwords under their names. Because of this, they tend to use simple passwords, leaving them exposed to brute force attacks. Despite the recommendations to use strong passwords, many still stick to their birthdays or any publicly available information pertaining to them. Without strict password requirements, employees will continue repeating weak codes that will make them the best target for cybercriminals.
A brute force attack is one way to crack passwords. It involves guessing credentials to gain unauthorized access to a system. It has a high success rate – approximately 100,000 brute force attacks happen every day.
To avoid this, make sure that you are using paid or free remote access software with great security. Also, have a robust security policy within your team. Set minimum password length, change the password every now and then, and keep a passwords history so employees will be obligated to set a unique password. You may also use a system that blocks a user after several failed attempts and utilize protection layers like 2FA or OTP.
2. Remote code execution
One of the current remote desktop protocol vulnerabilities is called the BlueKeep worm. It enables remote code execution using clipboard access. Once the paste clipboard action is used, it can allow processes to run in the background without having to ask for access permission. This mainly targets an operating system’s Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), causing significant risks to the computers involved and spreading cyber threats quickly. Since the patch was launched, only older Windows versions were affected.
Remote code execution can be a gateway to infect or steal sensitive data. Perpetrators can hold your data hostage in exchange for money or just destroy the data and ruin a company’s reputation.
If you want to avoid this, you must use secure remote desktop Software or update your software to the latest stable version. Check out security news regularly to be informed when new patches come out. Even though the next exploit can never be predicted, it’s only a matter of time before it can be discovered. Performing internal and external penetration testing can keep your system ready to fend off attacks.
3. Man-in-the-middle threats
The connection between the server and user network is usually encrypted when using remote desktop access software. However, the lack of authentication can make the system vulnerable to man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks. This involves a malicious actor intercepting the server-client communication. He impersonates one of the two parties, replacing originally transmitted data with fake ones. This gives the attacker access to the information you’d otherwise not share.
To be safe against MITM, you need to add authentication with TLS encryption in your system. Also, set up DNS authentication and limit access only to trusted IP addresses. These can prevent session hijacking, keeping the traffic safe.
Final Thoughts
We don’t see any clear signs of when things will go back to normal. As long as we’re doing remote tasks, it is worth taking care of the security of your networks and employees. Make sure to deploy proactive measures in your organization like updating software and OS updates, creating external system backups, setting up reliable firewalls, and installing anti-malware protection. If your employees use their personal devices for work connections, assess the security of their devices before allowing them to connect with your network.
Technology is evolving constantly that’s why you need to always think of ways on how to protect your system against exploitation. Paid and free remote access software can be a valuable business tool for your employees to enable safe offsite device access, remote technical support, and collaboration. Contact Itarian today!
