TruOffice service competes with GoToMyPC and Laplink Everywhere
Security vendor Route 1 is offering a service that let’s remote users take control of corporate desktops securely from any Windows-based computer connected to the Internet, enabling traveling employees to access their computers and for help desks to solve user problems by taking over their machines.
Called TruOffice, the service lets a user use any Internet-connected Windows computer to access as many as five other computers. With the service, remote users gain full control of specific machines via an SSL session that runs through a separate SSL tunnel.
TruOffice sessions run completely in memory on remote computers that retain no data from the secure sessions once they are terminated. The session is logically separated from the rest of the remote computer so any malware — viruses, Trojans, key loggers — have no affect on the secure session.
The sessions are initiated by plugging a Route 1 MobiKey security fob into the remote computer. The fob automatically brings up a screen asking for the user’s password, then a smart card within the fob authenticates to Route 1’s network operations center called MobiNet. Four invalid password attempts disables the fob.
MobiNet authenticates based on policies set by the customer and sends the user a menu of tasks they are allowed to perform with the MobiKey.
This protects access using two-factor authentication, which differentiates TruOffice from competitors including GoToMyPC and Laplink Everywhere, says Craig Matthias, a principal at Farpoint Group.
When a remote session is terminated, there is no data from it stored on the remote PC or any trace of the session. “You can use any client you want and work securely,” says Matthias, who is also a Route 1 customer. “When I pull my key out of your machine, you’ll never know I was there.”
Route 1 hopes service providers will license its technology to support desktop-hosting services. Rather than buy 10 PCs, customers would by a 10-user service and would be issued 10 MobiKeys. Each key would allow users to log into virtual PCs in the service provider’s network. “This is the future of thin-client computing,” Matthias says.
Route 1 is writing VoIP code for its next service. Customers would plug a fob into a PC, log in and be able to make VoIP phone calls, tap into corporate phone networks as well as service provider networks, says Andrew White, Route 1’s CEO.
Until now, Route 1 sold the fob including the software needed to perform remote control of PCs for $400. Now customers buy the fob for $160 and lease the remote control software for $20 per user per month, White says.
Each fob or key supports connections with as many as five other PCs, but the company also sells super-keys that support hundreds. These super-keys can be used, for example, as a tool for help desks.
Machines to be controlled by TruOffice must download software that automatically establishes a connection to MobiNet and supports creating links with machines equipped with an authorized MobiKey.
