Accops launches pen drive based solution for secure remote access from personal devices

Accops Systems has launched a revolutionary solution to empower BYOD users to securely access corporate applications and virtual desktop infrastructure from anywhere.

Delivered in a simple pen drive, the all-new Accops Nano allows organizations to fortify personal or unmanaged end devices with the highest level of security controls, mitigating concerns over threats from untraced keylogger or malware potentially residing in users’ devices.

Using Accops Nano, organizations can roll out work-from-anywhere solution en masse, without having to provision laptops to everyone or worry about threats originating from unpatched devices.

“A secure remote productivity infrastructure is the need of the hour to ensure a speedy recovery and sustainability in mid & long term. When we talk about work from anywhere, provisioning a laptop or desktop to every user across the organization is a big challenge. Typically, only about 20-30% of employees in any organization get office-provided laptops. The remaining 70-80% would use their personal laptops and desktops to access office PCs or internal applications remotely,” Vijender Yadav, CEO & Co-founder, Accops.

“Providing a laptop to everyone across the organization involves huge cost, which many small companies cannot afford. Again, organizations cannot control users’ home PCs or laptops due to privacy related issues. This is a serious concern for enterprises coming under various regulatory regimes, such as BFSI, healthcare, pharma etc.,” Yadav added.

One of the measures that organizations can take is to force users to have some endpoint security software in their personal devices. For example, Accops does ensure that an end device has a valid and updated antivirus, updated Windows and other security checks, before giving access to Office PC, which is helping organizations reduce risks to a considerable extent. But the problem arises when the end device is already infected by a keylogger. There is no way to control keyloggers in Windows OS because a lot of them work at kernel level, which is very difficult to identify as well as mitigate.

“The best alternative is to provide BYOD users with another OS for logging into the corporate network through Accops or any other VPN. So rather than delivering new laptops, organizations can deliver a new OS to their users,” Yadav said.

Accops Nano is customized and hardened Linux-based Live OS that can be delivered in a simple, consumer grade USB 3.0 pen drive. A user can plug in this Live OS-installed USB drive into his or her personal device and boot it into a secure read-only OS. It creates a secure container in the user device, enabling access to private applications as well as virtual apps and virtual desktops delivered through Accops Digital Workspace solution.

With Accops Live OS, remote employees, third-party vendors or contract employees can get instant secure access to internal applications and work the way they would do while being in office. Organizations don’t need to supply corporate devices to everyone.

The out-of-the-box security features block Internet and prevent data storage into the local hard drive or any other USB drive while using Accops Nano. Though users can do copy-paste, they cannot send it out as Internet and local storage are blocked. Once re-boot, the data stored in the Live OS is wiped out. Coupled with Accops Identity and Access Management solution, it can also enable multi-factor authentication as well as device fingerprint controls to prevent unauthorized access and use.