What is TeamViewer

                TeamViewer is a proprietary computer software package for remote control, desktop sharing, online meetings, web conferencing and file transfer between computers.

 Features

TeamViewer is available for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X,Linux, Chrome OS, iOS, Android, Windows RT, Windows Phone 8 and  BlackBerry operating systems. It is also possible to access a machine running TeamViewer with a web browser. While the main focus of the application is remote control of computers, collaboration and presentation features are included. 

TeamViewer can be used without charge by non-commercial users,and Business, Premium and Corporate versions are available.

TeamViewer GmbH was founded in 2005 in Uhingen, Germany. UK-based private equity firm Permira acquired TeamViewer GmbH from Durham, North Carolina-based software developer GFI Software in 2014. The company also hosts an online backup cloud service called Airbackup.

Establishing connections

TeamViewer may be installed with an installation procedure, although the 'Quick Support' version will run without installation. To connect to another computer, TeamViewer has to be running on both machines. To install TeamViewer, administrator access is required, but once installed it can be run by any user. When TeamViewer is started on a computer, it generates a partner ID and password (user-defined passwords are also supported). To establish a connection between a local client and a remote client, TeamViewer generated ID and password of either client are required. The local client requires the remote client's ID and password to gain control over the remote client, whereas the remote client requires the local client's ID and password to gain control over the local client.

To start an online meeting, the presenter gives the Meeting ID to the participants. They join the meeting by using the TeamViewer full version or by logging on to http://go.teamviewer.com/ and entering the Meeting ID. It is also possible to schedule a meeting in advance.

 

Security

TeamViewer uses RSA private/public key exchange (2048-bit) and AES (256-bit) session encryption.

 In the default configuration, TeamViewer uses one of the servers of TeamViewer.com to start the connection and the routing of traffic between the local client and the remote host machine. The software then determines how to establish a connection. In 70% of the cases after the handshake, a direct connection via UDP or TCP is established; the other connections are routed through TeamViewer GmbH's router network (via TCP or HTTP-tunneling).

 

Fraudulent uses

TeamViewer and similar services have been used to commit technical support scams via telephone calls. People are called, either at random or from a list, by criminals claiming to represent a computer support service which has identified the victim's computer as being infected by malware, sometimes using the name of a company such as Microsoft. They then ask the victim to give them access to their computer by installing a remote control service, which can allow the attacker to infect the computer with malware or to delete or copy personal files. A Wired journalist investigating the scams was asked by a scammer to install TeamViewer.

In March of 2016, it was reported that a ransomware program named "Surprise" was exploiting TeamViewer as an infection channel, among other distribution methods.

In June of 2016, hundreds of TeamViewer users reported having their computers accessed by an unauthorized address in China and bank accounts misappropriated.TeamViewer denied having been hacked directly and their service went offline purportedly due to a denial-of-service attack.