{"id":10621,"date":"2019-06-06T05:22:59","date_gmt":"2019-06-06T10:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.praim.com\/?p=10621"},"modified":"2023-01-17T16:49:43","modified_gmt":"2023-01-17T15:49:43","slug":"how-to-provide-a-secure-access-to-vdi-environments-with-thinman-smart-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.praim.com\/en\/news\/how-to-provide-a-secure-access-to-vdi-environments-with-thinman-smart-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"How to provide a secure access to VDI environments with ThinMan Smart Identity"},"content":{"rendered":"

With breach after breach making headlines today as well as various cybersecurity incidents being reported in unprecedented numbers, businesses today are having to rethink their security architecture. The security of environments includes considering how end users are able to access business-critical systems. Generally speaking, user access is assigned based on identity<\/strong>. Identity is the mechanism of validating that someone is who they say they are. Time and again, it is found that traditional means of securing resources is quickly becoming outdated and easily compromised by attackers. These security concerns are present across both full end user clients as well as VDI thin client devices. Why are traditional means of security simply not enough in today\u2019s world of growing cybersecurity threats?\u00a0 How can organizations engineer simple and secure access to company resources and still ensure the security of systems and data? Let\u2019s take a look at how Praim\u2019s Smart Identity<\/strong><\/a> with Agile 2.6.1 is able to provide this simple and secure access to resources effectively and efficiently<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Why Traditional Identity is Failing Organizations<\/h3>\n

Establishing identity plays perhaps the most crucial part in security for end users accessing valuable company resources. Based on identity, users are granted permissions or assigned roles that determine their overall abilities to access files, folders, or other data stored. Attackers most often look for the \u201clow hanging fruit\u201d for security compromise. Often, this involves compromising user credentials to gain unauthorized access to sensitive or otherwise critical data. What do attackers often look for? Weak Passwords<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Traditional security involving the classic username and password is failing to secure today\u2019s data. Many end users, including high-level access users with dangerous access permissions, are using weak passwords for their accounts. Why is this the case? Weak passwords are easy to remember. Humans are generally creatures of least resistance and effort. Many end users do not want the extra hassle of remembering a complex password and having to periodically change their password to yet another complex password. This leads end users to simply change a single character or add a different number to a very weak password that barely satisfies any complexity or password requirements.<\/p>\n

These types of habits by end users creates a massive security vulnerability in the username and passwords themselves. Many users use easily guessable passwords that are common words found in a dictionary. Attackers sometimes use what is called \u201cdictionary attacks\u201d<\/strong> to gain access to systems by using automated tools to try hundreds or even thousands of passwords against a number of accounts to try to guess the password of end users. More often than not, they can find an account of a user who is using a very weak password that is easily \u201cguessed\u201d using one of these automated tools.<\/p>\n

Other scams and tactics of attackers can also prove extremely fruitful. This includes phishing<\/strong> attacks that can trick end users into disclosing their credentials in some way. As basic and \u201cold school\u201d as the technique of phishing is, the technology presented to end users by way of websites and emails have gotten much more sophisticated and can easily pass as legitimate requests for information to the unsuspecting and untrained eye.<\/p>\n

Strong Security Requires Multi-Factor Authentication<\/h3>\n

When looking at ways to bolster the security of \u201cidentity\u201d, multi-factor and also smart card or similar authentication are tremendously powerful<\/strong>. With smart card authentication, you have a physical \u201ctoken\u201d such as a smart card that you possess which the user has to physically possess to login to their end user system. With multi-factor authentication, a user has to know a piece of information which is their password but they also have to physically possess the token that completes the chain of authentication required for accessing the system.<\/p>\n

If an attacker steals the user\u2019s credentials including their password, they still do not possess the full circle of security information needed to complete the authentication request as the true end user still possesses the physical token required for authentication.<\/p>\n

Verifying identity applies as well with VDI<\/strong> technologies<\/strong> to allow users to gain access to the VDI infrastructure. Many organizations may shy away from configuring multi-factor or other smart token access due to the complexity of configuring the extra security.<\/p>\n

Praim Smart Identity \u2013 Simple and Secure Access<\/h3>\n

Praim\u2019s Smart Identity solution works in harmony with Praim Agile<\/a> to provide a simple, secure, and seamless solution for providing more secure access to VDI environments<\/strong>. It is designed to work with many smart cards and readers: both with physical reading of the card through insertion (contact), and with proximity card with NFC (contactless) technology. Smart Identity allows you to enable different types of access and security, in a granular way, with total control of both users and authentication methods used.<\/p>\n

The enrollment process is totally under control of the administrator, who decides which devices could enroll the smart cards, how many cards a user can enable, as well as decide to block unwanted devices and smart cards.<\/p>\n

Praim Smart Identity can be configured in two configurations<\/strong> for authenticating end users to VDI environments:<\/p>\n