For years, cyberattacks have exploited remote access vulnerabilities to inflict deeper damages in organizations. But recently, the increasing shift o distributed offices escalated those risks. A more remote workforce, along with complex third-party supplier ecosystems, made remote access a rampant threat vector.

Microsoft's Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), already a common target for man-in-the-middle attacks, contributed to a 768% rise in attacks in 2020. The cyberattack targeting SolarWinds (December 2020) is another example of this trend. In SolarWinds, similar to NotPetya, the attackers gained access to a trusted update channel by compromising a software provider.