Why should you Ensure Secure Internal Communication in your Organization

Everyone has access to a truckload of data today. Employee tools have only made it easier. They dip into organizational data to make daily work efficient. Want to dial up a colleague? Just open the company phonebook. Need to communicate an office policy change? Just send across the latest company policy handbook. Need to exchange sales reports? Attach one with your ongoing conversation thread. Work’s easier with employee apps nowadays.

But don’t overlook an important factor: there’s sensitive company data exchanged all over. The more accessible data has become, it has turned more prone to risks. All this in a time of increasing security threats in the global business landscape.

In 2019, Canva, a graphic-design tool website, suffered a data breach that affected 139 million users. The data exposed included customer usernames, real names, email addresses, passwords and city and country information. In the same year, Capital One, one of the largest US banks, suffered a data leak where more than 80,000 bank account numbers and 140,000 social security numbers, and more, were stolen.

One small leak can cost a bomb to enterprises. According to a research by IBM, the average total cost of a data breach is pegged at $3.92 million. These are serious numbers, something that businesses cannot afford to incur for a long time.

SECURITY LAPSES APLENTY

Securing internal communication is becoming more and more important and indispensable for organizations today. There’s more data shared than ever before, and along with it come rising cyber attacks and security threats. No wonder internal communication compliance is getting stricter by the day.

In businesses having a large number of non-desk workers, the risk of unsecure internal communication is stronger. Around 80% of the global workforce today is deskless and a growing number of them connected through IM. So, there’s a massive amount of sensitive official data handled by on-the-go workforce daily. Any data leak or hack will cost the company dearly – in terms of both expenses and reputation.

Frontline workers are more susceptible to data leaks because:

They use their personal phones, which could be prone to viruses and other malware.
They might not be sensitized to best practices of secure internal communication.
Since they remain on-the-go, the chances of their phones getting stolen or data falling into wrong hands are more.
There are organizational loopholes as well. While employee apps might not be strongly secure, companies could also lack strong internal security watchbodies that can prevent security malpractices. There are some basic errors as well.

For example, there are businesses allowing the usage of consumer IM apps (like WhatsApp, WeChat, FB Messenger) as employee communication tools. Today, 35% of WhatsApp users leverage the platform to share sensitive business information and documents. Of course, it’s fast and productive. But it is equally unsecure. With consumer chat apps, vendors own the data. Protecting business messages and shared files turns a challenge. These public apps don’t give organizations the power to control, monitor, and scale company communication. There is also no way to retrieve data while using commercial communication apps. It doesn’t offer any data compliance and leads to Cross Industry System Risk. Safety is compromised as a result.

GETTING ENTERPRISE SECURITY IN ORDER

Security is becoming less of a checklist item and just another layer to add. It is a well-thought out part of organizational strategy now. Security is one of the top technology initiatives driving IT investments, almost equal to cloud computing and big data analytics. In two more years, the worldwide spending on information security is expected to top $151.2 billion in 2023. And a large portion of it is expected to be spent on security for IM apps engaging the desk and non-desk workers alike.

Security should be sustainable in organizations, not sporadic. The CIOs should lead the charge and incorporate a strong internal communication strategy and compliance in the organization. They need to introduce security as a part of workplace culture and work practices. The stepping stone is organizing awareness sessions and then ensuring stronger E2EE and protection from cyberattacks. There should also be prompt and effective troubleshooting and advisory teams in place.

To better secure internal communication, and mostly in businesses with non-desk workers, the need of the hour is employee apps with robust security. With enterprise IM apps that boast strong security, company data stays within the company itself. Thanks to remote wipes and data revocation, security is not a threat even after non-desk workers resign. Strong security in IM networks ensures valuable customer data is not leaked or lost. Also, since use of multiple devices and cloud adoption is peaking, a robustly secure communication app ensures seamless shift between devices while exchanging information on the cloud. Secure enterprise IM apps stick to internal security guidelines and enable the company to own, monitor, and manage data as well.

THE BEST SECURE EMPLOYEE COMMUNICATION APP

Groupe.io is an enterprise-grade employee app that delivers where it matters the most. The app, built especially to cater to the rising numbers of non-desk workforce, takes security very seriously. It comes with modern security enhancements and features that guarantee solidly secure internal communication.

Strong data encryption: All the data on the network is encrypted with TLS 2048-bit SSL certificate during transit. Along with it, a strong 256-bit AES encryption ensures bank-level data security.

Biometric security: Groupe.io leverages biometrics, public key cryptography and FIDO standards to deliver a user-friendly and passwordless authentication solution to prevent phishing and man-in-the middle attacks.

Remote revocation and data wipes: With a strong admin control mechanism in place, internal data always stays internal with Groupe.io. You can easily revoke targeted employees and also wipe sensitive data remotely to ensure company data does not fall into the wrong hands.

Role-based access control: With personalized access, only the right people in the organization can have access to the right set of data.

Groupe.io also comes with a host of nifty bells and whistles to further add to strong in-app security. Additional security features of Groupe.io include clickjacking prevention, SHA 256 encoding, Query injection defense, cookie hijacking prevention, cross-site scripting mitigation, cross-site request forgery blocking, and so on.

If you want to secure your enterprise’s internal communication and give your employees – both desk and non-desk – the most secure platform, you need to give Groupe.io a spin today.

Why not schedule a demo today or write to us at [email protected]!