With Microsoft Office 365, organizations can move their familiar Office environments to the cloud. But unlike traditional enterprise productivity suites, Office 365 creates a new reality in which employees, whether in the office, at home, or on the road, are in effect accessing enterprise systems remotely. Without traditional access controls implemented via the enterprise network, the only protection afforded these online services are inherently weak, static passwords.

By implementing strong authentication for Office 365 with SafeNet Authentication Service by Gemalto, organizations can significantly mitigate the risk of unauthorized access and data breaches.

Watch video to learn how to use SafeNet MobilePASS+ to secure access to Office 365!

Using SafeNet Authentication Service with Office 365

SafeNet Authentication Service by Gemalto can be used as the trusted identity provider, extending Active Directory identities, and adding strong authentication to Office 365. Providing a wide range of authentication methods, including out-of-band (OOB), personal identification pattern, and both hardware and software-based one-time password (OTP) form factors, SafeNet Authentication Service provides a sound balance between cost, convenience, and security. Two implementation options are available:

I.    Strong authentication using the Gemalto AD FS Agent
Organizations want to implement unified strong authentication policies for client and web-based applications can use Microsoft’s AD FS (Active Directory Federation Services) with the Gemalto AD FS Agent. The Gemalto AD FS Agent enables the implementation of strong authentication policies for cloud-based services such as Office 365 and other client and web-based applications. The Gemalto AD FS Agent is available for AD FS 3.0, which was released with Windows Server 2012 R2.

II.    Strong Authentication Using AD FS and SafeNet Authentication Service as a SAML Identity Provider
Organizations that want to extend strong authentication to Office 365 and other browser-based applications have the option of using AD FS with SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language). With this option, Gemalto SafeNet Authentication Service is configured as a SAML 2.0 Identity Provider for AD FS when users log in to Office 365.

About SafeNet Authentication Service
SafeNet Authentication Service by Gemalto delivers fully automated, highly secure authentication-as-a-service, with flexible token options tailored to the unique needs of your organization—substantially reducing the total cost of operation. With no infrastructure required, SafeNet Authentication Service enables a quick migration to a multitier and multi-tenant cloud environment, offering:

  °  Automated workflows and token management
  °  Fully customizable interface
  °  Extensive self-service portals
  °  Embedded identity federation for securing access to SaaS and web-based applications
  °  Protection of all resources, including networks, VPNs, SaaS applications
  °  Numerous token options
  °  No infrastructure investments
  °  Quick deployment and setup

For further information about SafeNet Authentication Service, please contact Bread Wong or (852) 28510271 (Office).