Is Apple Remote Desktop safe / secure? I manage 6 devices: (2x MBPs, 2x Mac Minis, 2x MB), devices are a mix of 10.8 and 10.10. Adding or updating software on each computer has become tedious and I've been recommended to use Apple Remote Desktop.

Ideally I'd like to be able to use Apple Remote Desktop to manage the devices at our office which are on the same network, but also be able to connect to laptops when they are out of the office in case I need to share the screen etc.

My only concern is, is Apple Remote Desktop safe / secure? - Is there a danger of someone else being able to access the machines via Apple Remote Desktop?
In general, for remote connections, I would recommend setting up a VPN server on your office network, which would allow access to insecure services (such as VNC, known by Apple as Remote Desktop), without fear of those services getting hacked remotely. Regardless of how secure VNC is (which it isn't), in general it's a good idea to have as few points of entry as possible. A VPN provides this.