RWS_Spring_21

SECURITY 40 REMOTE WORK SOLUTIONS rwsmagazine.com 1. Attackers Swarm VPNs and RDPs as the Remote Workforce Swells Working from home has become a norm for many businesses and has changed the profile of the soft- ware and services an average company relies on. While many companies lightly leveraged both remote desktop protocol (RDP) and virtual private networking (VPN) solutions before, these services have become mainstays in enabling employees to access corporate data and services outside of the traditional network perimeter. In 2021, it’s expected attackers will significantly ramp up their assaults on RDP, VPN, and other remote access services. RDP is already one of the most attacked services on the internet, but Watchguard suspects new com- panies are suddenly using it more as one strategy to give home users access to corporate machines. The company recommends only using RDP with VPN. However, many companies choose to enable it on its own, offering a target for hackers. Additionally, cyber criminals know remote employ- ees use VPN often. Though VPN offers some security to remote employees, attackers realize that if they can access a VPN, they have a wide-open door to a corporate network. Using stolen credentials, exploits, and good old-fashioned brute-forcing, Watchguard believes attacks against RDP, VPN, and remote connection servers will double in 2021. “Small and midsized businesses need assistance from MSPs (managed service providers) and MSSPs (managed security service provider) now more than ever,” said Marc Laliberte, who is a senior security analyst at Watchguard. “As the dust starts to settle from the chaos of 2020, organizations will need help cleaning up and securing their digital environ- ments. MSPs and MSSPs can use this opportunity to help companies set up secure remote access and mitigate many of the threats that hastily deployed solutions might’ve allowed last year.” W atchguard Technologies recently released several cybersecurity predictions for 2021. Here we zeroed in on the security expert’s predictions for corporate targets and technologies. Three Cybersecurity Predictions for 2021