can somebody from my VPN see my screen, if yes how to stop this?
Andrew Mclaughlin 
I'm a member of VPN at my work (I'm not the admin of the network), I have installed windows 7 pro on my pc myself and all the other software, and I am the admin of my PC, is it possible for someone else to see my screen or log my actions ? if yes how can stop this ?
26 Answers
I am using Windows 7 Pro and I think that somebody frommy VPN could see my screen how can I stop this?
Ultimately, if this is a company laptop and you're working on company time, they can do whatever their HR policies say they can do so trying to thwart something like this is an exercise in futility and could be "career limiting". Can you tell us:
- Who do you think is spying on you?
- Why do you think they're spying on you?
Nonetheless, to offer a pertinent answer...
For someone to access your PC in that manner, two major things must happen. First, they have to have knowledge of an account on your PC with sufficient privileges to install a service like VNC, Dameware etc. Second, your firewall must be set to allow traffic on the necessary ports.
To take care of the first issue, delete all unnecessary user accounts, disable the local administrator account and change all necessary user accounts' passwords to something complex. The second issue is a trivial matter of ensuring all unnecessary ports are blocked with a software firewall.
However, if your machine is a member of a domain, the machine is accessible to any member of the Domain Administrators group. You can do nothing to prevent this. You could always disconnect from the network that you suspect the "spying" is coming from.
No, they can't. A virtual private network implies that you are connected to a local area network via the internet. It has nothing to do, in itself, with sharing desktops.
In other words, other members of the virtual network can do nothing more than they could if you were physically connected to the LAN at your work.
The fact that your computer is in VPN does not allow anyone to do anything with your computer. It is however possible that there are programs running on your computer that log your actions or allow someone to access your computer remotely (eg. RealVNC, TeamViewer) and/or that your file sharing allows someone to access your files and folders.
What indicates to you that this is happening?
Are you using Remote Desktop? There are instructions at that link to turn it on (and off).
Or perhaps you have another remote access setup like UltraVNC or RealVNC which you can disable.
5A software based firewall could potentially stop this if you know what is being used.
You could install Wireshark to monitor the network traffic to/from your computer to see if anything is happening. This would also tell you the ports being used, and you could then use a software or hardware based firewall to block those ports.
A good firewall will block any attempt to access your computer.
However, the network administrator might have the freedom to install software on your computer that will log your actions.
If you wish to lockdown your installation, you might have a look at AppLocker, with which it is possible to prevent users who have administrative permissions to the system from running administrative tools. A very extensive article about it is found in An Introduction to AppLocker.
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