Remote Access and Remote Meeting Technology

Remote access has taken on new meaning and importance as organizations have moved to highly mobile end users among their workforce, customers, suppliers, and others.

Organizational federation for collaboration also places greater needs for remote access to systems resources.

Remote access has traditionally been defined as providing ways to authenticate and authorize an off-premises user to connect to the system. This brought with it the assumption that the organization faced great difficulties in physically protecting or securing the remote endpoint and its userin contrast to the local user, whose endpoint was typically on a wired connection and protected by facilities security methods. This is still the heart of the issue, even though the turn of the tide means that more users are remote. This foundation will be used to investigate various collaborative uses of remote access.

All the remote computing technologies have common security implications:

• People issues. Collaboration platforms encourage developing more supportive working relationships with others. This can unintentionally lead to the exposure of sensitive information through aggregation, accidental disclosure, intentional or unintentional violations, and inadequate handling policies.
• Networks and communication vulnerabilities. Connectivity systems can be vulnerable to a variety of attacks across all layers of the protocol stack.
• Attention from threat actors. Threat actors increasingly perceive these systems as high-value opportunities and focus greater attention on discovering and exploiting their vulnerabilities.
• Implementation issues. Implementing these systems to stay secure can sometimes be quite technically challenging.

While some of the providers in this marketplace are sophisticated, mature organizations, others are not. Providers whose products have small user bases, or that are relatively new entrants into the marketplace, have already demonstrated a certain naivete about security needs. Some of these vendors may not have the technical strengths necessary to upgrade their products to provide the security capabilities many organizational customers need.

Technologies and services exist that allow organizations and individuals to meet virtually. These applications are typically web-based and either install extensions in the browser or client software on the host system. These technologies also typically allow desktop sharing, which enables viewing of a user's desktop. Some organizations use dedicated equipment such as cameras, monitors, and meeting rooms to host and participate in remote meetings. These devices are often integrated with Voice over Internet Protocol (VolP).

Remote meeting technology risks include the following:

• Some software may allow control of another system when the desktop is shared.
• Vulnerabilities may be present in the underlying operating system or firmware.