How secure remote access software supports vendors and their customers
A gold-standard remote access solution can balance risk control and efficiency to provide secure remote access support that also meets or exceeds customer demands.
The shadow cast by recent data breaches falls over pretty much everyone in every industry. Vendor technology companies, in particular, are feeling the strain of the cyber risk that is built into their daily operations of interacting with customers. Exploiting vulnerabilities in remote access is one of the shortest paths hackers can take into a network, placing secure remote access software at the top of any vendor or tech company’s list of priorities.
But security isn’t the only concern vendors have when providing remote access support to their customers. Organizations also need to hit service level agreements (SLAs) for the customers who rely on them for critical functions on a daily basis.
The key to having it all is implementing an enterprise-grade, remote access support solution for customer privileged access management that balances liability and risk control with swift and simple access to customer networks.
VPNs aren’t the answer
To put it simply, your network security is only as strong as its weakest connection — and with more and more customers moving into cloud environments, the number of entry points for connections is rapidly growing. Furthermore, third-party remote access to technology vendors is an ideal target for cybercriminals. Hacking into one such vendor’s network is just a few steps away from breaching multiple additional networks in a range of industries.
Although VPNs are commonly used to mitigate the risks of remote access support, they don’t offer truly secure third-party access. This is because VPNs don’t offer the degree of granular control necessary to properly identify, control, and audit third-party remote access. What does offer that security, along with streamlined customer access, is a gold-standard remote access solution.
What makes a gold-standard remote access solution?
Gold-standard, secure remote access software needs to offer streamlined access with simple but robust security controls. The solution should:
- Operate within a secure platform that prevents organizations from inadvertently contributing to compromised data or the breach of a customer's network
- Mitigate risk to your organization and your customers with least-privileged access that ensures support reps can access what they need, and only what they need
- Minimize the risk of compromised credentials and eliminate your need to know and manage customer credentials with vaulted credential management
- Support compliance with session recording and detailed audit logs that provide contextualized insight into the “who, what, when, where, why, and how” of user activity
- Provide no-wait access and quick collaboration with service that meets or exceeds your customers’ security and compliance requirements
- Streamlines all customer access into a single solution to improve efficiency and time-to-resolution, for increased customer satisfaction
- Give customers the visibility and control over access they require with tools like access notifications, approvals, schedules, and time-based access
- Automate routine tasks to save time and money while avoiding problems created by human error
Ultimately, the right solution will protect your customers’ business and your own reputation with secure and standardized remote access support.
Imprivata Customer Privileged Access Management (formerly SecureLink Customer Connect)
Imprivata Customer Privileged Access Management (formerly SecureLink Customer Connect) offers all of the above capabilities and more. Our secure remote access software offers an access management platform that simplifies access to customer networks without compromising security. In fact, this customer privileged access solution offers a 65% reduction in time spent managing and supporting remote access, and a 70% reduction in security incident related expenses.
To learn more about secure remote access to your customers, check out our Ultimate guide to remote support for tech vendors.