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LyncShield First Choice of Israel's Foreign Ministry for Secure Mobile Lync Connectivity

By Jyothi Shanbhag TMCnet Contributor

To enable its ministry workers to securely use approved mobile devices outside the corporate network and help them work through Microsoft (News - Alert) Lync, the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs has recently deployed LyncShield, a solution that promises to offer secure mobile Lync connectivity.

Yaniv Cohen, system administrator at the Foreign Ministry said that they were looking for a solution that would allow them to decide which workers would have access to Lync through their mobile devices and to specify which smartphones would be granted such access.

The ministry, after a thorough analysis, decided on LyncShield for its exclusive features that come attached. LyncShield lets users safely connect to Microsoft Lync servers from a smartphone, tablet, PC and any other device outside the organization.

Connecting to a Lync server using the Lync client from smartphones, tablets and any other device outside the organization might expose sensitive information.

To ease the risk and allow workers to use their own devices, AGAT Software Solutions developed this innovative solution that prevents unauthorized mobile devices from penetrating the corporate network. LyncShield also defends from DoS, DDoS and brute force attacks.

The Foreign Ministry is currently taking advantage of LyncShield's two-factor authentication that offers protection layer by adding device identification to the user name and password. It even allows the ministry to control and manage the approved device and prevent uncertified devices from using the service.

"Our experience with LyncShield was very positive and we are currently exploring ways of using more LyncShield features," Yaniv Cohen added.  

LyncShield can be easily and quickly installed on relevant gateways and does not require any client side software. This solution is also available as a standalone gateway (Bastion server) that can be located behind firewalls such as F5 or others.

"LyncShield's solution, which ensures that workers use only a predefined device, has enabled Foreign Ministry workers to benefit for the first time from the advantages of Lync when they are outside the office," said Yoav Crombie, Business Manager of AGAT Software Solutions. "This successful project illustrates the benefits of using LyncShield for organizations that adopt a BYOD policy."

Edited by Stefania Viscusi