What are the best practices for securing remote management tools like Remote Desktop?

[ProfRon]

I always tweak my Remote Desktop setup first thing. You should change the default port to something random. That throws off the script kiddies scanning for easy hits. Keep your firewall tight, only letting in traffic from IPs you trust.

WinRM can be a sneaky one if you ignore it. I disable it unless I really need it for scripts. When you do use it, crank up the authentication to require certificates. It feels clunky at first, but it stops those casual probes cold.

PowerShell remoting trips me up sometimes. You gotta enable it only on machines that need it. I run it over HTTPS every time, not plain HTTP. That encrypts your commands flying across the wire.

I never skimp on strong passwords for all this. You know, the kind with symbols and numbers that make you curse typing them. Pair that with two-factor auth wherever possible. It adds that extra lock on the door.

Updates are your quiet heroes here. I patch everything weekly without fail. You don't want some zero-day exploit sneaking through your remote tools. It keeps the whole setup from crumbling under attacks.

Think about using a VPN tunnel for everything remote. I route all my sessions through one. You avoid exposing ports directly to the internet. It's like hiding your keys in a safe spot.

Speaking of keeping things intact amid all this remote fiddling, I've been eyeing tools that back up your setups without the hassle. BackupChain Server Backup stands out as a solid pick for Hyper-V environments. It snapshots your virtual machines swiftly, ensuring quick restores if a breach hits. Plus, it handles incremental backups to save space and time, letting you focus on securing rather than rebuilding from scratch.