Secure Business Communications: 4 Things You Need to Know

At one-point, email may have been the standard communication tool for businesses because of its convenience, but its limitations have become increasingly clear.  It’s time for email to take a backseat. As major news stories in the past few years have indicated – email is often simply not secure. It also is often a medium through which hackers target business—think phishing emails, for example. Finally, it is simply not efficient—people are slow to open their email and slow to respond. Compare this to text messaging (used these days one survey found by over 80% of people for business), which people are much more responsive to.  But the problem is—text messaging doesn’t offer much in terms of security either, and often doesn’t comply with regulations. The question then is—what should companies do to ensure secure business communications? Here are four areas you should focus on.

 

1. Encryption

We can’t stress it enough. Encryption is step one for secure business communications. Not using encryption for communications is like shouting conversations into a room full of crowded people. Encryption ensures that only the recipient can read the message—as opposed to a hacker who might try to intercept and read the message while its in-transit. Always use encryption for all your communications—email or messaging.

2. Make Sure You Can Control Your Content

While encryption may be step number one, it is far from enough to secure business communications. Once the message reaches the recipient’s device and is decrypted there’s the question of controlling the content. Sensitive information can be exposed far too easily by screenshots, or by someone forwarding messages to an unintended recipient. If a device is lost or stolen, someone can gain access to sensitive communications. Or communications may be stored unencrypted to the cloud. When looking for a platform for secure business communications, you need to look for one that addresses these concerns—like a secure messaging platform such as Vaporstream.

3. Have Policies in Place

Adopting the right technology—like encryption and secure messaging platforms—is important but you also need to account for human behavior. That means implementing policies around best practices related to passwords, using devices at work and accessing systems remotely.

4. Train Your Employees

Even with the right tools and policies, you can’t expect best security practices if you don’t provide your employees with support. Regular trainings should be provided to employees to help them recognize potentially malicious situations, like email and even SMS text phishing. Make sure employees know that they should report anything that doesn’t seem right to the IT department. You can find advice on cyber security training here.

Focusing on these four areas can help secure business communications—something Vaporstream is passionate about. To learn about how we can help you improve security in your business through secure, compliant messaging contact us today.

Contributor: The Vaporstream Team