In a company with many computers, TeamViewer can be an IT admin’s best friend.
Many computers usually means many users, and those users can lead to a lot of support cases. Instead of running around the office fixing users’ computer problems, admins can comfortably and remotely access the computers via TeamViewer.
Although using remote support tools has become quite common among admins and IT supporters, there may still be some concerns regarding security when using remote support tools. “If we install this software on our computers, can we be sure that no one outside the company can access our computers?”
An admin likely hears this question first when he or she suggests getting a remote support solution for the company.
Controlling User Access with the TeamViewer Whitelist
At TeamViewer, privacy and security have always been top priorities. We recognize that every company has proprietary information and confidential data stored on their computers.
To prevent unauthorized users from accessing these computers, we developed a whitelist for TeamViewer that was unveiled as part of version 3.6. Via the whitelist, you can grant certain users access to specific computers.
After setting up the whitelist, only users who are on the whitelist have the ability to access that particular device. The TeamViewer whitelist has been a very popular feature ever since its introduction.
Nevertheless, we received some feedback from users who felt that administrating whitelists was somewhat time-consuming since these lists had to be set up and maintained individually for each computer.
Another inconvenience cropped up when an employee left the company and his TeamViewer user account had been whitelisted on every single company computer. It meant updating the whitelist on each device that permitted access from that user’s account.
Introducing the TeamViewer Master Whitelist
To make life easier for admins, we introduced a master whitelist in version 10. Instead of adding each user individually to the whitelist on every computer requiring additional access protection, it’s now possible to add a whole company at once and use setting policies to apply the whitelist to any number of devices.
Now, all users who are managed under a company profile in the TeamViewer Management Console can be added to the whitelist with a single click. Thanks to the possibility of adding the entire company to a whitelist, new hires and departures within a company can be handled much more easily.
By adding or deactivating the respective user account in the company profile, all changes are automatically updated in the master whitelist and then applied to every device to which the master whitelist is assigned.
Setting up the Master Whitelist
You can create a whitelist in the new TeamViewer setting policies. To set up the master whitelist, log into the Management Console and go to “Design & Deploy”. In the Design & Deploy section, choose the “Policies” tab and select “Add Policy”. Name the policy, and choose the settings that you want to deploy.
The setting you are looking for in this case is “Black and whitelist”. You can now set up the whitelist by selecting “Allow access only for the following partners and click “Add”.
You can then select contacts from your Computers and Contacts list. For the easiest deployment of a whitelist you can add the entire company.
Then, all the users who are managed under your company in the TeamViewer Management Console will have access to the devices on which you deploy the policy.
Give the master whitelist a try by logging into the TeamViewer Management Console.
