Maximum Security

Virtual Administrator Agent

The Virtual Administrator platform architecture is central to providing maximum security. Each computer managed has a small agent installed. The agent initiates all communications back to the server.  Since the agent will not accept any inbound connections, it is impossible for a third party application to attack the agent from the network.

Firewalls

Virtual Administrator does not need any input ports opened on client machines. This lets the agent do its job in any network configuration without introducing susceptibility to inbound port probes or new network attacks.

Encryption

Virtual Administrator protects against man-in-the-middle attacks by encrypting all communications between the agent and server with 256-bit RC4 using a key that rolls every time the server tasks the agent (typically at least once per day). Since there are no plain-text data packets passing over the network, there is nothing available for an attacker to exploit.

Secure Access

Administrators access the Virtual Administrator server through a Web interface after a secure logon process. The system never sends passwords over the network and never stores them in the database. Only each administrator knows his or her password. The client side combines the password with a random challenge, issued by the Virtual Administrator server for each session, and hashes it with SHA-1. The server side tests this result to grant access or not. The unique random challenge protects against a man-in-the-middle attack sniffing the network, capturing the random bits, and using them later to access the Virtual Administrator  server.