Computer

Make this change NOW and prevent hackers from controlling your PC

Although it is true that it has lost a lot of popularity, teleworking is still present in many jobs. And this presents an opportunity for hackers, who are always looking for ways to remotely connect to computers, take control of them, and steal user data. Remote control software, such as RDP, It is one of the most used for this purpose. And, with the increase in computer attacks of this type, if we do not want to end up in the clutches of hackers, it is necessary to carry out certain changes to the PC.

Remote Desktop, or RDP, is Microsoft’s proprietary protocol for connecting remotely to any PC and using it as if we were sitting in front of it. It is very useful if we want to be able to connect to our PC when we are away from home, or if we want to connect to the office computer to be able to work with its resources and files as if we were sitting in front of it.

To connect by Remote Desktop we need several things: the IP (or domain) of the computer, the port used, and the username and password of the user. The IP cannot be changed in many cases, especially in a company, and it does not depend on us. The username and password can be obtained in many ways, such as through phishing, data theft, and even brute force. So all we have left is port. RDP uses port 3389 by default, a port reserved by Microsoft for this program, and the port hackers scan to find vulnerable computers on platforms like Shodan.

We can easily see the port that this tool is using in our Windows with the following command:

RDP used port

And, to change it, we just have to follow the following steps.

Change RDP port

Unfortunately, Microsoft does not allow us to change the port just like that. It doesn’t have an option where we can choose the port we want, or don’t want, to use. Therefore, if we want to carry out this task, it is necessary change an option in the registry.

We must open the “regedit” tool from the start search engine, or from the Windows + R keyboard shortcut, and we will move to the following directory:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SYSTEM>CurrentControlSet>Control>Terminal Server>WinStations>RDP-Tcp

There we located an entrance called “PortNumber”, We open it with a double click, and we change the value that comes here for the port that we want to use. For example, we can use 52325. We accept the changes, restart the PC and that’s it.

Change RDP port

We restart the PC and, when it reloads, we will have already changed this port, and the pirates will not be able to connect remotely to our PC. Of course, if we want to connect, it is necessary, on the one hand, that let’s open the port in the firewall of the system, and that we also open it in the router. Otherwise, we will not be able to access our PC.

Disable Remote Desktop

Although changing the port can help mitigate hacking, it’s not perfect as there are other ways to find the port. And you can even do a port scanner waiting for one to respond. Therefore, if we want to avoid falling into the clutches of hackers, and we are not going to use RDP, the best thing we can do is disable Windows Remote Desktop.

In this way, we make sure that no one will be able to connect to our PC without permission.

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