Boosting Remote Access Security: Public Preview of Remote Desktop Protocol Support for Duo Network Gateway

This article has been indexed from The Duo Blog

The Windows Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is often used for working remotely and providing IT support. Nearly 4.5 million RDP servers are exposed to the internet alone. The protocol is also, unfortunately, a common cyberattack vector. In 2020, attacks against Windows RDP grew by an incredible 768%! Additionally, the rapid shift to work from home resulted in thousands of RDP users and RDP-enabled machines connecting from outside the traditional network perimeter, thereby increasing the risk of cyber threats and data exposure. 

As a result of the ever-growing threat that RDP presents, it becomes crucial to ensure secure connections to hosts that are being accessed via RDP. Strong multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a fantastic step forward with features like device posture assessments and access control. Given the threats surrounding a machine that is accessible via RDP through the internet, we can instead place those machines behind a front-end, such as the Duo Network Gateway (DNG), without foregoing the streamlined end user experience people have grown accustomed to. 

End users do not have to launch a VPN client as the traditional extra step when gating access to RDP hosts. Instead, they simply launch their RDP client of choice and connect to the resources they require. During the initial connection to an RDP resource, the default Web browser launches to perform primary authentication against the organizations SAML 2.0 Identity Provider and then MFA is performed with Duo. After this in-line authentication, the secure RDP connection is established, and the end user is ready to go. 

Public Preview Available Now 

Duo has been testing out RDP with Duo Network Gateway, and

[…]
Content was cut in order to protect the source.Please visit the source for the rest of the article.

Read the original article: Boosting Remote Access Security: Public Preview of Remote Desktop Protocol Support for Duo Network Gateway