Microsoft is making a number of announcements today concerning its Windows 365 services, which allow businesses and their employees to access Windows desktops via a cloud server. That includes an upcoming new Windows App for all major platforms that Microsoft says should make it easier for employees to sign onto their Cloud PC from nearly any device. It also announced GPU-based cloud PCs are available as well.
Obviously, signing onto a cloud PC does also mean there could be potential security and identity issues. Today, Microsoft announced some new security features and improvements for Windows 365 that are designed to make accessing these cloud PC-based Windows desktops more secure.
In a blog post, Microsoft says one of those features is Single sign on. It states:
Single sign-on (SSO) not only provides a better user experience by reducing the number of credential prompts but it also adds support for passwordless (phish resistant) authentication when accessing Microsoft Entra–joined and Microsoft Entra hybrid–joined session hosts and Cloud PCs. SSO also enables support for non-Microsoft identity providers.
Another improvement is support for In-session passwordless authentication which allows employees to use passkeys to authenticate themselves while still in a cloud PC session. Yet another security edition is the use of the Microsoft Purview Customer Key. This is supposed to give businesses and organizations control over their encryption keys. They can then set up their Windows 365 cloud PCs to use those keys to encrypt the data in Microsoft"s data centers.
Microsoft is currently testing mobile application management (MAM) in a public preview for Windows 365 users on Android and iOS devices. Microsoft says this will help to "strengthen the security of the physical device" that might be used to access Windows 365 in locations that could be unmanaged or managed by an external company. There"s no word on when it will become generally available.