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Hey there, need some advice. I'm in the habit of working at night at home, but I don't want to bring my work pc home with me on my bicycle. i could print some stuff out but that would be environmentally unfriendly. Better would be to access my work computer from my home pc (leaving my work pc on while gone might be less unfriendly). Any ideas how I can manage this safely and securely from home?
I have a client that uses gotomypc. The computers they access are set to show the welcome screen when they resume from the screen saver. This gives a level of security. When I log into the computer I have to log into it using the passwords on gotomypc (there are two, one for the gotomypc site, and one for the PC) and then log into the PC once it connects. It has saved me a lot of travel and gas money. It also allows me to fix some problems quicker, check on backups, etc.
LogMeIn is supposed to be decent, and the basic service is free. I have it installed on a couple of systems, but I've only tried it once, so I don't really have any experience with it.
I use VNC to access most of my client's PCs, and my home PC when I'm away. VNC requires either a hole in the firewall or a VPN/SSH tunnel, though, as it's just an application, not a service like gotomypc or logmein.
GoToMyPc and LogMeIn and pretty secure in their architecture, but how secure are your passwords.
Hackers will look for these triggers for your password:
1. Your partner, child, or pet’s name, possibly followed by a 0 or 1 (because they’re always making you use a number, aren’t they?)
2. The last 4 digits of your social security number.
3. 123 or 1234 or 123456.
4. “password”
5. Your city, or college, football team name.
6. Date of birth - yours, your partner’s or your child’s.
7. “god”
8. “letmein”
9. “money”
10. “love”
That should cover about 20% of people, then they can run a thing called a brute force attack. They will get piece of software to generate all the possible combinations of your password. If you password is not that strong i.e. say a all lowercase 5 character password like "tiger", it could take a hacker 11.9 seconds to get into your system.
I would look at using another factor for authentication, like security tokens.
Thanks to all of you, excellent advice. I set up LogMeIn and it works frighteningly well. To Melaniebrad's point, I quickly followed up on the potential for 2-factor authentication and came across PhoneFactor, which has an agent for LogMeIn (makes it easy to set up). Does anyone have any opinions about whether this is a quality, reliable approach?
Um.... is this like a small office? Or are you in a corporate environment?
I don't care how "secure" the product says it is. If it's not "endorsed" by your IT department and allowed by policy - it's considered a rogue application and a potential back door. What these systems are in essence doing is punching a hole in your corporate firewall.... and the only real protection here is a password.
Most of the security "claimed" by these products are confidentiality based.. meaning the session is encrypted... but to say that its secure to use in YOUR environment without a risk assessment and taking into consideration of other factors is misleading. And I'm not saying it's NOT secure in any environment and these tools should never be used.... but that's why most corporations have an IT policy.
Of course, if you are a lawyer/accountant with your own practice... you make the policy.. and its up to you on the level of risk you feel is acceptable.
The best thing to use is Remote Desktop included with microsoft's xp pro and media center editions.. I think it's ultimate and some other editions of vista..
The technology wasn't developed by microsoft it's licensed from citrix.. also called Terminal Services unlike the more crappier programs of vnc it doesn't take a picture of every window.. it uses 1 and 0's to translate that window and that makes it prettier, easier to use and recently added features like remote streaming of video (doesn't work good) and remote listening of sounds.. (works okay)
Using a dynamic dns program and some router configuration assuming you have the appropriate copy of windows that is what I recommend.. I have been using it consistently for years in various environments.. and yes I sometimes control my computer albeit small via my pocketpc
LogMeIn is supposed to be decent, and the basic service is free. I have it installed on a couple of systems, but I've only tried it once, so I don't really have any experience with it.
I use VNC to access most of my client's PCs, and my home PC when I'm away. VNC requires either a hole in the firewall or a VPN/SSH tunnel, though, as it's just an application, not a service like gotomypc or logmein.
We use VNC for some of ours, but I've really come to like logmein. The cool thing is it can be done for anyone at anytime. But, there is a fee for that portion of it. We pay 100.00 a month for the service, but when you get 30+ calls a month that have to be done remotely the cost of that 100.00 is made back rather quickly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by melaniebrad
GoToMyPc and LogMeIn and pretty secure in their architecture, but how secure are your passwords.
Hackers will look for these triggers for your password:
1. Your partner, child, or pet’s name, possibly followed by a 0 or 1 (because they’re always making you use a number, aren’t they?)
2. The last 4 digits of your social security number.
3. 123 or 1234 or 123456.
4. “password”
5. Your city, or college, football team name.
6. Date of birth - yours, your partner’s or your child’s.
7. “god”
8. “letmein”
9. “money”
10. “love”
That should cover about 20% of people, then they can run a thing called a brute force attack. They will get piece of software to generate all the possible combinations of your password. If you password is not that strong i.e. say a all lowercase 5 character password like "tiger", it could take a hacker 11.9 seconds to get into your system.
I would look at using another factor for authentication, like security tokens.
Everyone should read through that. Follow the advice.
On a side note, I would challenge anyone that thinks they are good at breaking passwords to give mine a shot. I use Upper/Lower Case, Numbers and Symbols. There are 9 characters in my password. Good luck
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