Remote working for IT Pros by Microsoft customer service

It’s natural for IT workers to first ensure that front line and supporting workers in an organization have a secure and productive way of performing their Http //Support.Microsoft.Com/Help,Support.Microsoft.Com/Help,

 usual tasks remotely. After all,  Microsoft Phone Number a reduction in the business’ ability to provide its products and services correlates pretty quickly to a drop in revenue, cashflow and profitability. Without this financial sustainability, the Microsoft Customer Service IT department has no organization to support.

 

But if your IT Pros are also working remotely,  Microsoft Support Phone Number what additional considerations and tools are available that are relevant to them?

 

1. Secure administrative accounts Microsoft Customer Service
This is security basic applies no matter where you are working from. IT Pros often use accounts with a high level of access, necessary to perform their tasks. Consider making these accounts separate from the logins they use to do regular work, that doesn’t require administrative privileges. This helps to  Microsoft Support Phone Number protect those privileged accounts Http //Support.Microsoft.Com/Help, from being used by malware which acts as the current user, helping to minimize the impact of such an attack. It’s also vital that administrative accounts for Cloud services at least use a  Support.Microsoft.Com/Help,

form of multi-factor authentication, and ideally are protected by conditional access scenarios. Conditional access helps to identify and block risky log-in events as they occur.

 

See Http //Support.Microsoft.Com/Help,

2. Restrict administrative access
Instead of an administrative account having privileged access to a system all the time, there are a few methods for turning this on only when needed.

 

With a Virtual Machine in Azure, just-in-time access can be used to block network ports used for management tasks (such as RDP and SSH) until access is requested  Http //Support.Microsoft.Com/Help,and approved. Learn more at Secure your management ports with just-in-time access.  

 

Azure Managed Applications also have a just-in-time access capability. Learn more at Request just in time access.

 

Privileged Identity Management allows time-based privileged access to resources and to Azure Active Directory. It also includes tracking justification for that access, notifications when activated and an audit history. For PIM options applicable to Azure, Azure AD,   Microsoft Support Phone NumberOffice 365 and SaaS applications, see What is Azure AD Privileged Identity Management. 

And for Windows Server, there are several options for securing privileged access, including just-in-time local administrator account passwords and Microsoft Phone Number privileged access workstations. For scenarios and guidance, visit Securing Privileged Access and also check out Just Enough Administration for PowerShell. 

3. Secure scripts and secrets 
Many modern administration tasks are done at scale with code-based commands, whether that’s a Power Shell script or an Azure Resource Manager Template. As IT Pros use code-based tools like Visual Studio Code, be intentional about storing scripts in a location that both facilitates use across a remote IT worker team and keeps those scripts secure.Support.Microsoft.Com/Help,

 This could even be a private GitHub repository, with GitHub accounts secured by MFA.

 

Also, check your code (manually or programmatically) to ensure it does not contain environmental secrets such as log in credentials. Supply these as a variable Microsoft Customer Service when the code is run, or use a solution like Azure Key Vault for secure storage of secrets that can be referenced in your scripts. Learn more at 

4. Use Windows Admin Center
Windows Admin Center is a locally deployed, browser based administration tool for the management of both on-premises and Azure Windows   Microsoft Support Phone Number Server machines (physical or virtual). It uses the Windows Admin Center gateway and requires no agent to be deployed on the target server. This tool is preferable to the historic method of Microsoft Customer Service using an RDP session to connect to and manage a Server, and it includes role-based access control and activity logging. Support.Microsoft.Com/Help,

For more details, visit

 

5. Use Azure Bastion Microsoft Phone Number
Both RDP and SSH are important remote connectivity protocols, but they’re also highly targeted by malicious attacks. In Azure,   Microsoft Support Phone Number there’s an easy to use Bastion host service that provides connectivity to your Azure virtual machines via the Azure Portal, Http //Support.Microsoft.Com/Help,without the need for the RDP or SSH ports to be exposed to the Internet. In fact, the destination   Microsoft Support Phone Number server does not even need a public IP address. Learn more at 

Conclusion
With their high levels of access to critical systems and data, secure work methods and tools are important for IT Pros, regardless of where they are working Microsoft Customer Service from.Support.Microsoft.Com/Help,

 It is possible to provide both an increased level of security and the access and productivity that your IT workers need.Microsoft Phone Number  Investing the time to review this now will help to protect your organization from future malicious access attempts.