When businesses move to remote and hybrid work, they must ensure their devices, data, and accounts are kept safe. While the ability to work from anywhere is excellent for improving productivity and efficiency, it can’t come at the cost of security — in fact, it becomes even more important to ensure employees are using secure technology.
As such, remote access solutions must be thoroughly tested to ensure they remain safe and secure. Penetration testing is a crucial step of this process, as it helps identify vulnerabilities so they can be addressed before any bad actors find them.
With that in mind, let’s explore the purpose and process of penetration testing for remote work.
What is Penetration Testing?
Penetration testing (or “pen testing” for short) is the process of simulating attacks on a system or solution to identify its vulnerabilities. The goal is to approach the system like a hacker would and find any weak points they could use to break in and cause damage so that companies can spot and address these vulnerabilities in advance.
Penetration testing for remote work is the same, only focused on remote work solutions. Given the security risks unique to remote work, such as unsecured wi-fi networks and lost devices, penetration testing needs to consider both general attacks and those specific to remote work.
How does Pen Testing Work?
Proper penetration testing is a process designed to identify, test, and address security issues and weaknesses. This typically consists of four steps:
Reconnaissance: white hat hackers gather information on the system and prepare for a test attack.
Scanning: connecting to the target network or system to find open and exploitable weaknesses.
Gaining and maintaining access: accessing the system through these weaknesses, potentially including social hacking (ie: phishing emails or fake security alert messages), and identifying what sensitive data can be extracted.
Covering tracks: the testers remove any traces of the breach to see how easy it would be to cover up.
The goal is not to steal data but to identify how hackers or other bad actors could access a system and what information they’d have access to from there. Once the weaknesses have been identified, then they can be addressed and repaired.
The Need for Penetration Testing in Remote Work Environments
What makes pen testing so important in remote work environments? Remote work environments require dedicated attention to security to defend against common threats, especially for industries with specific security requirements and guidelines.
Penetration testing helps companies identify and address the unique vulnerabilities that remote setups may face. By spotting and fixing any vulnerabilities well in advance, organizations can begin using remote access solutions and start working from anywhere with full confidence in their security measures.
Identifying Vulnerabilities for Penetration Testing in Remote Work
With that said, what are the risks and vulnerabilities specific to remote work, and how can penetration testing help identify them?
Remote work vulnerabilities can include:
Unsecured Endpoints
A common vulnerability for remote work comes at its endpoint. Solutions that work across multiple devices and operating systems must have security features that work across each endpoint; otherwise, they’re leaving devices vulnerable.
Personal Devices
One of the biggest strengths of remote access technology is how it gives users the ability to work from any device, supporting BYOD environments. However, this puts some security responsibility on the users, who must ensure their devices stay safe. If a user loses their device or falls victim to a scam that compromises their device, it can put everything they access at risk. Users need to be trained in security best practices, including how to avoid social engineering scams and phishing.
VPN or Firewall Misconfigurations
Organizations often use Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), which are known to being vulnerable to cyber threats. If a VPN isn’t fully secure, or firewalls have open ports, hackers and other bad actors can use those weaknesses as a point of ingress into your systems.
Public Wi-Fi Networks
Remote access technology allows users to work from anywhere with an internet connection, but not every wi-fi network is safe. Unsecured public wi-fi can often have vulnerabilities that allow bad actors in, so it’s important to have layers of defense to protect devices from intrusions.
Best Practices for Pen Testing in Remote Work Environments
When you conduct penetration tests, they need to be efficient and comprehensive. Make sure you follow these best practices for pen testing:
Regularly schedule tests to ensure your security remains up to date and watch for new vulnerabilities; continual testing and reviews are essential.
Focus on all endpoints so you can maintain security across every possible point of ingress.
Use realistic attack simulations designed for remote work, including phishing attacks and unauthorized access attempts.
Take a collaborative approach with your security teams, IT departments, and remote employees for effective testing.
Train your employees on security best practices, including how to identify common cyber threats, avoid phishing scams, and report incidents.
Fortifying Remote Access Security with Splashtop
In addition to regular penetration testing, you need to ensure the tools your team uses to enable remote work are highly secure. When looking for a solution that allows remote workers and IT to access workstations and endpoints from anywhere, you need a remote access solution with a tested and proven record of security.
Splashtop, for instance, is committed to remote access security and undergoes regular penetration testing for all its systems. As part of its dedication to security, Splashtop includes multiple advanced security features, including mandatory device authentication, multi-factor authentication, and end-to-end encryption to keep devices and accounts safe. As a result, Splashtop is compliant with a wide array of government and industry security standards, including ISO/IEC 27001, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, PCI DSS, and more.
Splashtop’s ongoing focus on strengthening its security ensures secure remote work and desktop access for users, so employees can work from anywhere while staying ahead of threats. There’s nothing more important than security for remote and hybrid work, but with proper testing and a secure solution like Splashtop, remote work can be accessible and safe.
Ready to work on any device, from anywhere with a secure, reliable remote access solution? Experience Splashtop for yourself with a free trial today:
