Coral Springs, FL · A past field engagement; exact dates not published
Securing Remote Access for a Coral Springs Shipping Company
A small shipping company in Coral Springs used internet-accessible Remote Desktop for remote work. Its logs showed repeated automated login attempts. We installed a pfSense firewall, removed direct public access to RDP and moved staff access behind a VPN, with Suricata providing an additional inspection layer.
By Lazaro Anias, founder & engineer. Published . Updated .
- Location
- Coral Springs, FL
- Project period
- A past field engagement; exact dates not published
- Scope
- pfSense firewall, access review, Suricata and VPN access
Where it stands: Direct public access to the RDP service was removed, and staff remote access moved behind a VPN.
The challenge
- Remote Desktop was directly reachable from the public internet.
- Logs showed repeated automated password-guessing attempts.
- Staff still needed remote access to shipping and accounting systems.
What we built
pfSense at the network edge
A dedicated pfSense firewall replaced the existing edge setup and gave the company a central place to manage inbound access and logging.
Inbound access reviewed
We reviewed public-facing services and removed direct internet access to the RDP login.
Suricata inspection
Suricata added signature-based traffic inspection and intrusion visibility at the firewall.
VPN access for staff
Staff reached the required remote-desktop systems through an encrypted VPN with individual credentials.
The results
- Direct internet access to the RDP service was closed during the deployment.
- Staff retained remote access through the VPN.
- Firewall logs and intrusion alerts improved visibility into traffic at the edge. These changes address the observed exposure, not every possible security risk.
Client not named by policy. The company is a small shipping business in Coral Springs; the attack activity described is what its own logs showed before the engagement.
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