Safety of RDP for Home Office

[Datenshi]

Hello,

 

During these Corona times we're being forced to work from home. Teamviewer licenses are being suspended apparently and thus we're force to RDP from our home computer to our office computer. 

 

I'm always wary of these things as i don't want my work to be able to snoop around through our personal files on our home computer. I just want to be sure that if i RDP to my office pc they can't trace back files/keystrokes from my home pc.  Anyone have experience with this? Would VPN also help?

 

Thanks & stay safe!

[Lurick]

If you're doing RDP over the internet without a VPN then there is a big issue with that since it's not encrypted by default. If it's from your home PC to a work PC in your own network then that's fine.

[Datenshi]

2 minutes ago, Lurick said:

If you're doing RDP over the internet without a VPN then there is a big issue with that since it's not encrypted by default. If it's from your home PC to a work PC in your own network then that's fine.

Hi, yes it's through internet on a different network. So i should use VPN, got it!

[schwellmo92]

2 minutes ago, Datenshi said:

Hi, yes it's through internet on a different network. So i should use VPN, got it!

Normally you would have to use your companies VPN to RDP to a machine on-premise. If that is the case, they will (usually) be able to see all of your network traffic while connected to the VPN.

[Datenshi]

2 minutes ago, schwellmo92 said:

Normally you would have to use your companies VPN to RDP to a machine on-premise. If that is the case, they will (usually) be able to see all of your network traffic while connected to the VPN.

We don't have a VPN from the company. that makes sense if you use their vpn they can pretty much see anything. I got my own thankfully

[Kilrah]

Then how are you conneting to the work machine? Having it directly internet-accessible is considered unsafe, hence why you should be using a VPN to connect into the work network, and only then be able to RDP into the machine.

 

That's risk for the company though, not for you. 

[Datenshi]

1 minute ago, Kilrah said:

Then how are you conneting to the work machine? Having it directly internet-accessible is considered unsafe, hence why you should be using a VPN to connect into the work network, and only then be able to RDP into the machine.

 

That's risk for the company though, not for you. 

Well it's not fully working yet though. So maybe the reason it doesnt work is because i dont have a work vpn yet.. interesting. Then it basically answers my original question.

[schwellmo92]

8 minutes ago, Datenshi said:

We don't have a VPN from the company. that makes sense if you use their vpn they can pretty much see anything. I got my own thankfully

How do you RDP to your PC than?

[schwellmo92]

5 minutes ago, Datenshi said:

Well it's not fully working yet though. So maybe the reason it doesnt work is because i dont have a work vpn yet.. interesting. Then it basically answers my original question.

Usually you have to run a VPN, most often they take over your whole network connection. Some of them will only VPN the single RDP or similar process but they are quite uncommon.

[Datenshi]

1 minute ago, schwellmo92 said:

Usually you have to run a VPN, most often they take over your whole network connection. Some of them will only VPN the single process but they are quite uncommon.

Okay so i assume you mean 'take over your whole connection' of this one computer? Other active pc's are not detectable?

 

I'm thinking of having the RDP active then on a throwaway pc..

[Kilrah]

Of this computer. And by connection it means your network activity would be going through the company, no access to your files or whatever. So just don't facebook or such on the same machine...

 

And that'll only be valid once there's a VPN to connect to.

[Datenshi]

Just now, Kilrah said:

Of this computer. And by connection it means your network activity would be going through the company, no access to your files or whatever. So just don't facebook or such on the same machine...

 

And that'll only be valid once there's a VPN to connect to.

Thank you, this makes it perfectly clear for me. Thanks a lot!