Citrix XenApp (former Presentation Server) is an end-to-end application delivery system offering both application virtualization and application streaming to enable the best access experience for any user, with any device, working over any network. With XenApp, organizations can centralize applications and data in secure data centers, reducing costs of management and support, increasing data security, and ensuring fast, reliable performance.

Business Challenge
While Citrix XenApp has made it easier for users to securely access critical information, simply using passwords to authenticate Citrix users can still put a company at risk. Once a session is opened, users want to securely authenticate to applications and even switch machines while continuing the same session.

SafeSign Identity Client (IC) enhances the Citrix platform by enabling strong, two-factor logon authentication to a Citrix XenApp Session, ensuring the highest security and mobility, as well as simplifying the authentication process for end users. SafeSign IC enforces two-factor security, requiring the end user to have both the USB token or smart card (something you have) and a Personal Identity Number (something you know). USB tokens and smart cards are physically and logically tamper-resistant, ensuring that the end-user’s digital credentials are not copied, modified or shared.

Citrix smart card logon
SafeSign IC supports logon to Citrix XenApp, XenDesktop as well as the Web Interface and Citrix Password Manager. During the logon process, the end user inserts his/her smart card into the smart card reader. SafeSign IC then prompts the user for his/her Personal Identity Number (PIN). The user’s certificate  is presented, and if the certificate and the associated user account are valid, the user is authenticated and logged on to a Citrix session.

Published Citrix applications
In addition to logging on to the Citrix session, SafeSign IC also supports smart card use by all published applications that support certificates. For example, Microsoft® Outlook can be configured to use the certificate on the end user’s smart card to digitally sign e-mail messages, or decrypt e-mails and attachments.

Session authentication & roaming
SafeSign IC supports roaming sessions for strong authentication within a Citrix environment, independent of the smart card reader or operating system used.