Communications between employees, with prospects and customers, or among business partners – they all happen mostly via email, video calls, and instant messaging these days. As a result, almost no business can operate without using some kind of business communication tool or, more likely, a set of tools.
Cybercriminals are well aware of that. With cybercrime globally on the rise, data breaches are among the top cyber threats. Targeting communication tools used by businesses is no exception. For example, commonly used solutions by Microsoft and Slack have in recent years experienced an increased number of cyberattacks.
Let’s review the key features that you should look out for when choosing a business communication solution to keep your organization safe.
Contents
- Maximum security as a default
- Compliance and auditing
- Data sovereignty
- Communications across borders
- Integration & scalability
- User experience
Secure Collaboration 2024: A future-proof business communication tool with a security-first approach
1. Maximum security as a default
When choosing a communication tool for your business, there’s no room for compromise when it comes to security. Whether you’re using the tool for internal or external communications, instant messaging or email, text or calls – you're most likely sharing business-sensitive information that shouldn’t (and can’t) be leaked.
Your business-sensitive data can range from company-confidential (e.g. customer names) to restricted (e.g. employees’ personal and HR data, financial statements) and even secret information (e.g. trade secrets, product blueprints).
The communication solution should offer strong security controls and end-to-end encryption* as a default. For example, senders and recipients can be verified using strong authentication methods such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), single sign-on (SSO), or PIN.
* End-to-end encryption is a widely used term nowadays, and many regular communication tools claim to be end-to-end encrypted, including regular messaging apps (like WhatsApp). When choosing a tool, investigate closely what kind of encryption it offers – for example, in the case of instant messaging apps for business use, look out for Olm and Megolm encryption.
2. Compliance and auditing
Hand-in-hand with security comes compliance. A data breach can significantly hurt your organization, and similarly, using non-compliant channels to communicate or share sensitive information can lead to serious consequences (like non-compliance fines or damaged business reputation).
No matter what secure communication solution you choose, it should provide full audit trails and various reporting options. So, when you’re hit with an audit, you can easily prove compliance with relevant laws and regulations and show evidence of sending and receiving communications.
3. Data sovereignty
Related to compliance is also data sovereignty. Various industry-specific regulations or even your organization’s own policies might, for example, prohibit the use of public cloud or set concrete requirements when sharing business-sensitive data. In such cases, you need a solution that offers flexible deployment and gives you full control over your data.
The business communication tool should meet your requirements and offer deployment in the cloud (public or private) and on-premises. E.g. by using a self-hosted server, you maintain full control over all messages and shared files.
4. Communications across borders
Business communications aren’t limited just to emails and calls anymore. You need an all-in-one, unified solution that can handle encrypted emails, secure business messaging, audio and video calls, but also secure file sharing – no matter whether these communications are internal or external.
There should be no artificial borders and limitations when it comes to devices. Modern organizational work is dynamic, and your stakeholders need to easily use the tool from the comfort of the office as well as on the go. So, the solution needs to be accessible across devices and operating systems.
It’s also important that the solution works via a web browser with its full functionality intact.
5. Integration & scalability
Your communication solution can’t be a stand-alone tool. For it to be an effective and helpful collaboration tool, it needs to easily integrate with your stack without compromising security or functionality.
At the same time, it needs to be easy to scale up or down – ideally without the need to contact your provider’s support or sales. For example, inviting new users should be a quick process that can be managed within seconds.
6. User experience
User experience is pretty self-explanatory. The solution needs to be easy to use, with no extensive training for users required.
It should also have all the functionality and tools that users are used to. For example, secure business messaging should offer group chats, threads, emojis, polls, voice messages, etc.
Secure Collaboration 2024: A future-proof business communication tool with a security-first approach
Looking for a solution that has it all? Our Secure Collaboration 2024 is a business communication tool that makes it easy to encrypt emails, messages, chat rooms, and audio/video communications for privacy, compliance, and record-keeping.
Secure Collaboration 2024 was developed with a security-first mindset and offers full audit trails and flexible deployment options that allow you to be in control of your data.
It includes:
- Secure Messaging: A secure instant messaging app for your business-sensitive communications. Encrypted messaging and group chats, encrypted audio/video calls, full audit trails, and all the common features you’re used to in regular instant messaging tools.
- Secure Mail: A highly secure email encryption solution for your sensitive, confidential, restricted, or secret email communications that can be easily embedded into your existing email services.
- Secure file sharing of files up to 1 GB.
Book a demo and see Secure Collaboration 2024 in action >>>
