PhoneFactor Adds Phone-based Two-Factor Authentication for Microsoft Terminal Services
Authentication Service Gives Administrators and End Users of Terminal Services a New Phone-based Two-factor Authentication Option
April 8, 2008 – Positive Networks, a leading provider of security products and services, today announced a new version of PhoneFactor for use with Microsoft Terminal Services. PhoneFactor turns any phone into an authentication device and has been optimized to provide secure two-factor authentication for access to computers using Terminal Services, which enables millions of people to run applications over a network or to manage servers.
Terminal Services is Microsoft’s implementation of thin-client terminal server computing, where applications, or the entire desktop of a computer are made accessible from a remote client machine. Terminal Services is a popular way for administrators to manage servers remotely. PhoneFactor is a free web-based service that can be set up in minutes providing a simple and secure way to add complete two-factor authentication to any Terminal Services implementation (and other applications and websites).
“Terminal Services is one of the most widely used products available for managing servers remotely,” said Steve Dispensa, CTO of Positive Networks. “With PhoneFactor, administrators wanting secure access beyond basic passwords have a simple and very secure option. Complete two-factor authentication can be quickly set up without the hassle of tokens or other additional devices.”
Terminal Services administrators can add PhoneFactor to servers quickly and easily by going to www.phonefactor.com. Beginning the week of April 14th, the Terminal Services version of PhoneFactor can be downloaded for free and is compatible with Windows Server 2003 and above, supporting both 32 and 64 bit platforms.
“When considering the power associated with Terminal Services, it’s critical to only allow appropriate access,” said Evan Conway, EVP of Communications and Chief Identity Officer. “We continue our development to support PhoneFactor availability for the most widely used products on the market that are in need of strong authentication.”
PhoneFactor is a simple two-factor authentication and identity protection service that provides far greater security than usernames and passwords. For most applications, it can be used for free. This award-winning phone-based authentication service can use any phone (mobile or landline) as a second authentication factor. The user enters a username and password just like normal, and then simply answers an instant telephone call and presses “#”. This completes the authentication process. Complete two-factor authentication and identity protection is instantly enabled with no need for tokens, smart cards or certificates.
