Remote Access

Remote access for Theatre Manager usually means situations for remote box office or work at home. There are a number of tools that can be used, such as Remote Desktop Connection (RDP), LogMeIn, Go To My PC, and more.

In all cases of remote access for box office, you should implement either a VPN tunnel and/or SSH access - where the communication and session has strong encryption or is a private connection per PCI DSS 4.1.

There may be additional setup consideration as described in the following sections based on the software you use. Your IT person should ensure that whichever software is used, that it employs VPN or SSH.

PCI compliance requires that remote access have a user ID and password, and an additional authentication factor that includes, but is not limited to, items such as a smart card, token, PIN, biometrics, VPN, etc.

For people with remote access, you must establish passwords according to PCI DSS requirements 8.1, 8.2, 8.4 and any requirements of all sections of 8.5. In other words, the requirements for remote access passwords and authentication are exactly the same as for access to your office LAN.

 

Common remote access mechanisms that we use

While there are many vendors of remote access software, the ones that we see used most often are:

• Using a VPN and local copy of TM for full and secure network access - best used when internet connections are fast
• Using Microsoft Remote Access (RDP) and Terminal Server for full managed access to TM - best used when internet is marginal/poor or you need to control internal network access
• Using a remote access tool like TeamViewer, LogMeIn, or similar to simply access your own machine from a remote location. Best when no remote ticket printing is required.