Note: This guide is primarily written to help Shadow Techs customers but may be useful for others.
Background: Remote desktop is a very useful tool, especially in this time since so many people are working from home as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic. Remote desktop was secure enough on it's own for a long time but eventually hackers started using phishing to gain access to users credentials and then using those credentials to gain access to those user's office PCs. From there they had the option to cause all manner of mischief, worst of all, they could initiate a ransomware attack. Initially we combated this by adding 2 factor authentication using Cisco's Duo product that has worked very well for a few years now.
Even though Duo works well to prevent unauthorized remote access to user's office computers, the sheer volume of attempts has started to cause a problem because it overloads the authentication engine in Windows to the point where your connection may be cut off, the connection may be slow or you may not even be able to connect at all without retying multiple times.
The Solution: We have to prevent all unauthorized access to the remote desktop function on the office PC entirely. To do this we need to create a (virtual) private connection between your home PC and the office also known as a VPN and then connect through that.
To complete this setup, you will need to know the following information:
Your VPN connection address (typically this is vpn.yourdomain.com )
The internal name of your office PC (To find this, open Control Panel, (Optionally) click on System and Security and then click on System, you need the value listed for Full computer name )
Creating the VPN connection.
Press start button and type VPN, choose VPN Settings
Click Add a VPN Connection
In VPN Provider, select Windows (built-in)
In Connection name enter a descriptive name for this connection
In Server name or address enter your VPN address (often vpn.yourdomain.com)
Leave VPN Type as Automatic
Leave Type of sign-in info as User name and password
In User Name enter your VPN username (most likely the same as your windows username)
In Password enter your VPN passport (most likely the same as your windows password)
Press Save
Opening the VPN connection
Click on the windows network connection icon on your tool tray
Select the connection that you created in the previous section
Click Connect
After a brief pause, the status should change to Connected
Note: When you are finished working, you should use the same link to disconnect the VPN connection again.
Opening a Remote Desktop Connection
Open the Remote Desktop application in Windows
Under Computer enter your full computer name as mentioned above (Note: your computer name will most likely end in .local and NOT .com)
Click the Connect button