You may be aware of all the people in masks trying to access sensitive data on your company servers. Cybercriminals? No, they’re just remote workers, adjusting to doing their jobs in a pandemic.
More employees than ever are working from home, and they still need to access company servers and devices to keep the business operating at its best. This is a challenge that put many companies to the test in 2020.
Remote workers have a unique set of IT needs, but COVID-19 has also changed how help desk and technical staff provide support to all those remote employees – while working from home themselves. At Impero, we spent 2020 perfecting our remote access software to make life a little bit easier for both the remote workers and the IT staff who are WFH.
Register here for our webinar on How to Work From Home Securely with the Impero Portal to learn more about the advanced features that Impero users have at their fingertips:
OnDemand Sessions
Some remote employees took their office computers home, while others had to use the BYOD (bring your own device) method. This has been a bit of a headache for IT security, with dozens or hundreds of new potential attack vectors. It’s also a challenge for help desk teams to manage, repair or provide tech support when those devices need it.
Our software makes it simple and secure to launch Impero OnDemand sessions to connect to macOS, iOS, Windows or other devices without needing to pre-install any software on them. It’s a breeze to quickly connect, troubleshoot as needed, and get that employee back in action.
Multi-Factor Authentication
When a user tries to access sensitive information, it’s become standard to minimize the risk of unauthorized access by having them prove their authenticity using MFA. Impero integrates with industry-standard tools, or provides a built-in MFA solution that works just as well.
Confirm Access via Email
Not every device has a user sitting in front of it, but for security reasons it’s still important to make sure it can only be accessed with the right permissions. This is why Confirm Access via Email (CAvE) was introduced in 2020. Impero administrators can create rules preventing session initiation until an approver allows the connection. When a remote session is initiated, an email is sent to a designated group of users who must “confirm access” before the session is allowed to begin.
Time-based Access
It often makes sense to limit remote access to a specified window of time. Time-based Access is a new feature that gives your IT team greater visibility and control over when access is allowed.
Set defined maintenance windows, restrict access by shift, or create rules for any number of different scenarios. For example, set a schedule that lets a specific group of users access a specific group of devices on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9am-5pm. They now have the access they need, but only when you allow it. 
Application Whitelisting
When employees remotely access a device or server, there can be a real security concern with privilege escalation, or accessing things internal users aren’t supposed to access. Often, IT teams allow RDP connections to internal resources. They setup VPNs to allow external access, but it gets chaotic and out of control way too fast.
This is where our application whitelisting feature comes in. Instead of granting users access to an entire network, segment, server or device, application whitelisting allows access only to a specific set of approved applications. There’s no ability to navigate the network or even run command prompts on the device – only the program that has been whitelisted for that user or user group.
Video Logging
Logging enables your IT team to track each step that happens in a remote access session. This matters a lot in regulated IT environments where compliance is required. But looking at text based log files to see what happened during a screen-sharing session doesn’t work. That’s why Impero allows users to record video logs that show everything that happened during a remote control session.
For some of our customers, the video logging feature is used for help desk training. When a complicated technical support session goes well, it’s useful to share a video record of how the problem was solved to train other members of the team.
Work from Home packs
Earlier in the year, we developed three individual work-from-home packs that are ideal for specific use cases. Contact us to talk about which one might be the right fit for you.
You can learn more about Remote Workplace Security Best Practices, or try Impero Connect free for 14 days.