Security Risk While Collaborating on Workplace Platform

Undoubtedly, all business establishments, regardless of the number of employees or the industry sector they operate in, are plagued by this Covid-19 pandemic. During this scenario, video conferencing has quickly emerged as the core of almost every collaboration and communication strategy for leading brands worldwide. Along with the benefits provided by video conferencing, it also involves some security risk with it.

We believe that this pandemic is not an interim peak, and this trend will continue even after the post-COVID-19 world. The era of remote working has shown us how valuable this medium is, not only for engaging from any edge of the world but also for enhancing productivity and efficiency at the same time. By 2027, the video collaboration market is ready to hit a worth of around $11.56 billion, with demand for this technology overgrowing.

However, many organizations don’t seem to be well equipped to work from home. Sectors like insurance and healthcare may find it difficult to work remotely because of the business’s character. However, within the last few months, we’ve seen even these sectors pull out all the stops to adapt to the current reasonably new work model by employing collaborative workplace platforms. Additionally, the government is trying to develop a secure video conferencing platform to be used by the govt and courts, enabling various departments to perform seamlessly while preventing the security risk.

The Enterprise Security Risk of Using a Generic Messaging Platform

For all the collaborative and productivity benefits that escort teams messaging platforms, they are also open to many security risk if they don’t use the proper protocols. High-risk sectors, where customer privacy is most important, like financial services, government, and law, must be especially cautious. As in the recent past, a WhatsApp data breach that targeted millions of people brought another vulnerability of these generic platforms.

Source: Get Stream

Given the pitfalls that may occur if sensitive information is exposed through a breach of employee communications, businesses should seek for enterprise-grade communication and collaboration platforms with a particular set of safety features to reduce security risk. While there’s no silver bullet to forestall breaches, as hackers become more sophisticated by the day, there are features and certifications that lend to a safer and more secure employee communication strategy.

Encryption

Encryption helps to shield against data breaches and hacks that might ruin a company’s reputation. Regardless of how sensitive the information is, the businesses should ensure that the messaging platform they choose encrypts all messages in an unintelligible format until it reaches the intended receiver. Decryption should only occur when the intended person opens the message. Companies should also make sure that all employees have the encrypted app for the approved platform on their smartphone to ensure all internal communication is protected from security risk even though it’s not done on company-owned hardware.

Source: HP Store

Compliance

When it comes to data and customer information – especially in financial services, law, hospitality, and insurance – there are many regulations that companies must consider. GDPR is one of the famous names that typically flashes in our mind, but looking at the industry, HIPPA, SOC 2, ISO and other compliance statuses become essential. By ensuring that the chosen messaging platform complies with all the relevant regulations within its industry, potential issues and resulting fines may be pre-emptively stopped.

Data Center Security

Source: The SSL Store

A messaging platform is barely secure because the server it uses, so knowing what data center or cloud service the platform uses is crucial to making sure messages are secure. Standard cloud service options like AWS and Azure have highly regarded built-in security, so messaging platforms hosted on these benefits from all the safety and compliance measures they need in place. If a platform uses another data center, then it must be thoroughly examined for security protocols before it is selected for use in the company.

Ways to Keep Your Organizational Data Secure in this WFH Environment

With an outsized proportion of the workforce working remotely because of the Covid-19 challenge, organizations are compelled to put the required measures to ensure the safety of confidential organizational data. The primary and foremost step is to use a secure workplace collaboration platform that permits seamless communication across teams. The subsequent step is to create awareness among employees about the danger and repercussions of a security breach. For this, the top leadership needs to educate themselves first about security practices.

It is often a misconception that large enterprises are more at security risk when it involves a data breach. However, small and medium enterprises should also take steps towards educating every individual within the organization. Additionally, it’s exceptionally vital to empower the IT team to make decisions around security by helping them undertake training and courses that are relevant to their profile.

Here are some approaches that reduce these security risks

• Ensure two-factor authentication/multi-factor authentication:

Source: MalwareBytes Lab

An increasing number of companies require two-factor authentication when employees log in to their devices/accounts. Two-factor authentication adds a redundancy layer to confirm that only the particular account owner can access their account.

• Beware of phishing emails and messages:

Source: Inspired eLearning

If you ever receive an email around huge discounts, lotteries, etc. think twice before clicking on the link. An increasing number of cases where employees receive such emails, which once clicked on, provide an inroad to hackers with malicious intent.

• Secure your home networks:

Even though you have a separate work laptop provided by your office while working from home, you’re probably using your home Wi-Fi. Your organization’s IT team has no control over it whatsoever. Changing your password to something way more complicated than merely names or birthdays of members of the family is the most straightforward step in securing the home network.