Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS), has increased the security of its Amazon WorkSpaces Desktop-as-a-Service solution (DaaS), by adding new client device screening capabilities.
Amazon WorkSpaces allows organizations to provide virtualized Microsoft Windows desktops for users. Users can access documents, applications, and other resources from any device, anywhere, at any given time, with any supported device. It competes against Google’s G Suite, and other DaaS offerings by virtualization specialists.
AWS now has greater control over the devices that access the service via supported devices.
In a blog post, Amazon WorkSpaces announced that it now offers additional options to control which clients can access your WorkSpaces. This new feature allows you limit WorkSpaces access only to trusted devices. Your digital certificates allow you to manage access to WorkSpaces on macOS and Microsoft Windows computers. You can also block or allow access for iOS, Android and Chrome OS clients as well as WorkSpaces Web Access clients. These new capabilities will allow you to further enhance your security posture.
Users can now use the WorkSpaces management console to set up access control policies that are based on OS type, OS version, and patch levels. Or, the devices can be screened based upon device type. This allows iOS, Android, and other platforms to be granted or denied access privileges.
The “Restrict WorkSpaces access to Trusted Devices” documentation contains the technical details.