VDI Desktop Strong Authentication

Over the last two years, VDI has been taking a growing importance on the market since it is fast and simple to deploy for users, partners or consultanst.

Two ways for implementation can be observed on the market;  via a SSL-VPN or directly on the Internet.

One if the main challenges is  to allow strong authentication on various type of devices such as Thin Client, iPad, Laptop,... having various interfaces. Currently there is no possibility to allow the use of Biometric reader, RFID reader or something else with any kind of device.

For example it would be difficult to use i-pad keyboard to enter confidential information (password) with a lot of people around, that could be looking at it and there is no USB port allowing connection of a device.

Another difficulty appearing with VDI is the keyboard mapping. If the user did not close correctly its previous session on a PC and launches a VDI session on an i-Pad, it can be expect that the keyboard mapping does not work. It results in an incapacity to logon to the desktop if the password is complex.

FISid approach to solve this issue is quite simple:

• A GINA/CP agent is deployed to  replace the standard Windows Logon
• Desktop strong authentication is enabled via One Time Password
• The user enters is OTP coming from a Display card, from a soft token, or via SMS