Remote work has become a standard operating model rather than an exception. In 2025, more than 75% of companies globally offer some form of remote work, including fully remote or hybrid arrangements.
This shift applies not only to full-time employees, but also to contractors, external administrators, service providers, and other third parties who require access to corporate systems as part of their work.
As a result, organizations are managing access for a much broader and more diverse group of users — across different countries, devices, and network environments. This is where centralized access control becomes critical.
Why companies rely on remote access
Companies adopt remote work for practical and operational reasons. Some aim to reduce office and infrastructure costs. Others hire specialists across regions or countries. In many cases, remote access is needed temporarily — for example, when employees work from home during sick leave, connect while traveling, or when contractors and external administrators need short-term access to specific systems.
These scenarios differ in duration, purpose, and required access level. Yet access is often granted using the same approach — full VPN access, static credentials, or broad permissions — regardless of context.
Centralized access management platforms like Axidian Access allow organizations to define which authentication methods and access conditions apply to each system, instead of treating all remote users the same.
Where security risks actually come from
The main security risks of remote work are rarely caused by remote access itself. They stem from how access is granted, monitored, and revoked.
Remote users frequently rely on personal laptops, smartphones, or tablets with limited security controls. Their network environment — home Wi-Fi, hotel networks, public internet — is outside the organization’s direct control. At the same time, corporate security tools are harder to deploy consistently on external devices, reducing visibility and complicating anomaly detection.
Another recurring issue of remote work security is excessive privileges. When access is granted quickly, users often receive broader rights than necessary. This becomes especially risky when external access is provided to critical systems or privileged accounts. Axidian Privilege addresses this by controlling how privileged credentials are used, and ensuring that administrators and contractors never work with passwords directly.
Different roles require different access
Remote work scenarios vary, and access should reflect that. For example, an employee from the accounting team working from home during sick leave may only need temporary access to a single financial application — not a full desktop session or unrestricted network access. Once the task is completed, that access should be revoked automatically.
In practice, permissions are rarely adjusted for such cases. Employees and third parties often retain the same rights they had in the office. With Axidian Access, organizations can define application-level access, enforce MFA where needed, and apply time-bound or conditional policies without exposing unnecessary systems.
The complexity of managing remote access rules
Setting up secure remote access typically involves VPN gateways, firewalls, and network configuration changes. When remote work is part of a long-term strategy, organizations usually have time to assess risks and design controls.
Challenges arise when access is granted urgently or temporarily — for example, to connect an external administrator to a server. In these cases, threat modeling is often skipped, and permissions remain active longer than required. Managing multiple conditions — temporary access, scheduled access, approval-based access — further increases complexity.
This is where combining Axidian Access for centralized authentication and Axidian Privilege for privileged session control helps reduce operational overhead. Access rules can be enforced consistently, sessions audited, and permissions revoked automatically — even when access scenarios change quickly.
Employees with both regular and privileged access are in the risk zone. Compromised access of these two groups can result in a number of serious problems. Identity spoofing and phishing attacks, data eavesdropping and leaks – you definitely do not want to add these headaches to the existing to-do list. So what can be done to secure access in such circumstances?
Two-factor authentication of remote employees and management of privileged users are some of the key measures to be taken.
Let Axidian Access solve the tasks connected with regular user’s authentication. Here is what access scenarios can easily be addressed:
- 2FA in Web applications
- 2FA in RDP
- 2FA in VPN
- 2FA in VDI
At the same time, with Axidian Privilege you will:
- Get 2FA before granting privileged access to be 100% sure who’ll access the infrastructure.
- Enjoy full control over the sessions by determining what resources system administrators and contractors can access and for how long.
- Publish only PAM Gateway – you do not have to open up the whole infrastructure and expose it to additional risks.
- Have video/text records of sessions helping to investigate incidents. It’s your decision if video recording will be turned on for all privileged users or only for some of them.
Why Axidian is important for remote work security
- It’s your fast help – the easiest authentication scenario can be implemented in less than 2 hours, while privileged access management can be deployed in 2 days only.
- Security comes first, budget concerns second – we understand that the necessity to implement two-factor authentication or privileged access control can be unplanned and your company might not have the budget at the moment. So we offer a free trial to solve the problem now. You could pay for licenses in 6 months. Didn’t like the product? Changed your mind? Then you can determine a contract without any financial or legal consequences.
- All your employees are safe – we’ll issue as many licenses as you need. Yes, free of charge for 6 months.
- Need PAM and MFA at the same time? We’ll provide you with both products so you’ll simultaneously hit two rabbits with one shot – with Axidian’s help.
- Minimum efforts – we’ll guide you through the whole process, provide free consultations and install the system.
- Usability – your employees can choose the most convenient and recognizable authentication method: SMS, push notifications, TOTP/HOTP.
- Fully operating technical support – we have already adapted to the quarantine situation. The workflow is settled down and our team is ready to assist 24/7.
Push the button and get the specialist’s consultation in 30 minutes.
