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Secure Remote Access

By   ·  2 minute read

The internet is more connected than ever. From tech support to record storage, today’s businesses work together over the cloud by connecting devices to the internet and exchanging information. In a post-COVID economy, it is now common for work environments to require employees and vendors to remotely access company networks and applications. 

With more and more organizations providing global employees with remote access, outdated security measures threaten to leave many businesses vulnerable to attack. Proper end-to-end safeguards and measures are required to provide employees secure access from any location and any device.

Secure Remote Access

Secure remote access is a set of strategies developed by an organization to prevent bad actors from gaining remote access to internal business networks and sensitive data. Secure remote access is an integral part of any healthy application stack, ensuring the cyber-hygiene of any business.

Many security solutions and technologies work to help ensure secure remote access for employees and organizational activities, such as:

  • Endpoint Security – Ensures antivirus and firewall software are up-to-date, systems are patched, keyloggers aren’t running, and caches are emptied of sensitive data.
  • Virtual Private Network – A secure network connection over an existing public network, often secured through authentication and encryption.
  • Single Sign-on (SSO) – Provides secure access to select applications with a set of authenticated login credentials.
  • Network Access Control (NAC) – A combination of endpoint security measures that control access to a network using network security policy enforcement.
  • Friendly Net Detection (FND) – Allows a device to automatically detect approved networks it has permissions to access.
  • Privileged Access Management (PAM) – Technologies that secure, monitor, and manage access to enterprise data from privileged accounts.
  • Desktop Sharing – Provides employees with real-time access to files and data located on a separate device.

Protecting Remote Access Endpoints

Its recommended best practice that employee or third-party users should use single sign-on access methods that simplify and centralize authentication databases. A single password is not enough to authenticate remote users and multi-factor authentication is now required under compliance standards and regulations. 

A combination of methods, such as a password, key fob, or fingerprint, all provide ways to secure access to sensitive endpoints. Many of the above work to prevent harmful intrusions by relying on cryptographic algorithms to protect endpoint access. But without a proper hardware security module (HSM) to store cryptographic keys, highly sensitive and privileged credentials still remain dangerously vulnerable.

The Use of Hardware Security Modules

Hardware security modules safely store secure keys, digital assets, and other business applications in an isolated environment. The right HSM should be built for sensitive and complex approval flows, such as secure access to critical infrastructure, payments, transfer of assets, code signing, and identity management.

With HUB Security’s military-grade HSM and mini HSM, organizations can now secure any type of sensitive business flow with end-to-end security. Built for complex enterprise authorization flows and approved for FIPS-Level 3, HUB Security’s mini HSM enables ultra-secure and fully remote access to an on-prem or cloud-based vault which can authorize remote access requests.