Getting Started
The researchers at cybersecurity company ESET have noted a sharp rise in the number of RDP-based cyber attacks in 2021. Attackers have taken advantage of unprotected desktops, weak passwords, and unrestricted RDP access ports to hack into RDP-based connections. As most organizations rarely manage the employee credentials, it is easy for hackers to do password reuse Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on public-facing RDP servers.
Remote Desktop solves this problem with RDP vulnerabilities by implementing security and access controls.
Secure RDP with
Closed RDP ports with Remote Desktop
Most RDP connections listen on port 3389. Attackers can reasonably guess this port number and attempt to reach computers with misconfigured or overlooked firewall rules. With Remote Desktop, the user does not need to expose the RDP ports to the public and change any firewall rules / ACLs to enable remote desktop access.
Secure RDP access with the Trusted Devices feature
In general, RDP accepts connections without verifying whether the viewer computer is trusted or not. But with Remote Desktop, every sign in to the account from a new device, to access the remote computer, you are required to authorize and add it as a trusted device. Adding your computer as a trusted device helps prevent unauthorized access to your Remote Desktop account and RDP sessions.
End-to-end encrypted RDP sessions
Remote Desktop sessions operate over end-to-end encrypted RDP channels with an additional layer of TLS and 256-bit AES-encrypted channels. The encryption prevents anyone from viewing your session by listening on the network.
Every session is based on private / public key exchange from the remote to the local computer. The technology is based on the same standards as TLS / SSL and meets today’s standards for security. The key exchange further guarantees viewer-to-host data protection. This means that even Remote Desktop routing servers cannot read the data stream.
Secure RDP access with Two-step Verification
Two-step verification enhances the security of your Remote Desktop account and prevents unauthorized access. Once two-step verification is enabled, in addition to your password you will need to enter a verification code received on your Time-based OTP authenticator app while signing in to your Remote Desktop account.