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| VPN question, a little worried about security I work from home, but I use VPN to connect to my office so I can receive e-mail and access files on the network, etc. In addition to my work computer, I have two other personal computers in my home but they're never connected to the VPN that my work computer is connected to...is it at all possible for my office to gain access to my files on those personal PCs? All of the PCs (personal and work) are connected to my home network for internet access, but only my work computer is connected to my office via the VPN. I'm guessing that since my personal PCs aren't connected to the VPN, it's not possible for those files to be shared, viewed, or tracked by anyone at my office. Am I correct?
I have a lot of sensitive information like credit card numbers, etc. on my computers and my dad had his social stolen once, so I'm a bit jumpy when it comes to stuff like this, and that's why I'm asking.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks! | |
| Depends on the VPN, depends on how it’s configured, depends on whether you have other access controls in place.
For example, I can connect from my primary network (192.168.1.x) using a Microsoft PPTP client to my secondary network (10.10.1.x) using a Microsoft PPTP server. Unless I take actions to prevent it, access is bidirectional. When I get an IP address on the 10.10.1.x network using the VPN, anyone else on the 10.10.1.x has just as much access to *me* as I do to them. IOW, the fact I'm remote is meaningless. For all intents and purposes, I'm local to the 10.10.1.x network, and therefore have all the same security issues. OTOH, if I was connecting to a dd-wrt router running a PPTP server, the router might default to preventing bidirectional access (not sure, never tried it, but router implementations might be more secure simply because the network firewall exists on the same device, and therefore might require explicit access rules be defined). Then again, maybe OpenVPN or some other VPN might behave differently. It just depends on your particular VPN of choice. | |
 SoonerAlOld enough to know betterPremium,MVM
join:2002-07-23
Norman, OK
kudos:5 | reply to jeilough
As noted by eibgrad it depends on the VPN server and client configuration. For example with the native Windows PPTP VPN client you should make sure its configured like the screen shot. Other clients can either be configured local to your computer or remotely via the server on login. For example I used to force OpenVPN clients to direct all traffic through the VPN tunnel when I ran an OpenVPN server. This was done on the server side of the link.
»openvpn.net/index.php/open-sourc···redirect
I recommend talking with the work network admins about this and verify the VPN client you use is configured properly.
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"When all else fails read the instructions..."
MS-MVP Windows Expert - Consumer | |
| reply to jeilough
Establishing a VPN between your home and your office has no security concerns - that simple means that there's two-way traffic from your LAN to your company's LAN.
This does not mean they can access files/data on your PC, it simply means it can communicate with your computer. If your computer has your C:\ drive shared with guest access then yes, anyone can view this information. If you have a firewall on and it's protecting your network connection, it SHOULD be denying unsolicited access to SMB shares and other port vulnerabilities.
This is 100% your responsibility to make sure you are protecting yourself.
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Thanks,
Sean Brown
»www.sleepyshark.com | |
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