This is a guest blog post by Eric Vila, Product Management Director, HID Global.
The hybrid work model has presented huge opportunities for organizations and their employees alike. But with employees accessing corporate resources from anywhere, at any time, work is no longer bound to the perimeter of an office. So how can organizations protect countless assets outside this perimeter without compromising on user experience?
In its Citrix Launchpad: Security event, Citrix shared how it’s addressing these challenges through zero trust solutions that support simple, secure, and seamless access. Watch the recording on demand here.
Citrix Workspace enables employees to access everything they need to do their job, including apps, files, and desktops in one place and from any device.
Citrix Workspace is built around delivering remarkable user experiences, simple and secure access, and convenience for employees. With HID Globa’s HID® Crescendo® authenticators, Citrix Workspace customers can leverage zero trust with adaptive multi-factor authentication and ensure access is only granted to trusted users and devices, while eliminating the use of inconvenient and vulnerable passwords.
The Citrix and HID Global Partnership in Action
To help facilitate a secure hybrid workplace, HID Global and Citrix have partnered to enable users to authenticate to Citrix Workspace with HID Globals’s FIDO2-enabled smart cards or security keys. This comes with FIDO2 support in Citrix Workspace app for Windows, in addition to Windows Hello-based authentication, and more.
The partnership takes us all a step closer to a passwordless future. Now, users can tap their key or insert their card to gain access to all their resources within Citrix Workspace — eliminating friction, wasted time, and insecure passwords. This means organizations can implement a zero trust security architecture using strong, industry-leading standards and credentials across their entire distributed workforce.
Citrix’s support for FIDO2 inside the virtual session means the same Crescendo device can be used inside the HDX session as well. This allows for step-up authentication or if a website in the session doesn’t have SSO, users can login using that same FIDO2 credential. Additionally, PIV/x.509 can be used concurrently with FIDO2 within the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops session. This allows Citrix users to use multiple credential types in the same HDX session with the same Crescendo card or key, helping organizations to adopt more modern passwordless authentication.
In addition to securing access to Citrix Workspace, HID Crescendo smart cards and security keys (USB-A and USB-C) enable authentication to diverse set of company resources throughout an employee’s day, including:
- Secure Windows logon
- Access to IT networks and systems
- Access to desktop and cloud applications e.g., Office365, Dropbox, G Suite
- Authentication of printing
- Digital signing of documents
- Encryption of emails and data at rest
- Converged physical and logical access with a single credential
If you want to boost your passwordless user experience and further enhance the security of your Citrix environment or company in general, Crescendo can easily extend across a wider multi-factor authentication (MFA) ecosystem, including HID DigitalPersona MFA software.
Here’s how easy it is to seamlessly access Citrix Workspace using HID Crescendo:
- The user can simply insert their Crescendo security key into a USB port or tap/insert a Crescendo smart card
- Once they have started the Citrix Workspace, the user can log on to the desktop app without a need for further login prompts or entering of passwords
- They can then access their published resources within Citrix Workspace, and get on with their work effortlessly
HID’s Crescendo line is Citrix Ready and compatible with Citrix Workspace and Citrix Workspace App for Windows. You can check out all our FIDO2-enabled smart cards and security keys in the Citrix Ready Marketplace. Also, HID Global is now part of the Citrix Ready Workspace Security Ecosystem helping our mutual customers in their passwordless journey.
Want to learn more about HID Crescendo? You can speak with a HID expert or even try Crescendo security keys for free.
