Is Your Secure Messaging Platform Enterprise-Grade? Here’s What You Should Know

Enterprise-grade mobile messaging solutions and consumer messaging apps like WhatsApp and iMessage have the same raison d'être – to connect users, allowing them to instantaneously communicate and collaborate. That’s where the similarity ends. Mobile first messaging solutions purpose-built for the enterprise contain critical encryption and security protocols needed to lock down communication. Consumer messaging apps – on the other hand - introduce risk to the enterprise in the form of security loopholes and threats. There is a lot at stake for enterprises to ensure they are using the right mobile messaging technology. Technology that increases business productivity and efficiency, drives innovation and enhances collaboration without compromising security, control and compliance.

How do enterprises determine whether their messaging platform is enterprise-grade? Evaluating the security, control and compliance of their messaging platform will easily answer that question.

Security

Security is a key differentiator between enterprise-grade mobile messaging platforms and consumer messaging apps. Consumer-grade messaging apps lack the physical and technical safeguards necessary for enterprise communication, exposing companies to security risks. Enterprise-grade mobile messaging platforms like NetSfere use device-to-device encryption via a unique key. This key scrambles messages during transmission, unlocking only after they reach receivers’ devices. NetSfere’s device-to-device encryption protects messages and documents from the time they leave the sending device until they arrive on the receiving one.

What’s at stake
In today’s digital environment, the need for comprehensive enterprise data security can’t be ignored. Usage of consumer messaging apps in the enterprise can be costly. Consider that the financial cost of data breaches is $3.86 million on average according to IBM’s 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report. Unauthorized third-party access to data and data theft can also lead to negative brand perception, damaged relationships with suppliers, partners and vendors and loss of trust with customers and clients.

Control

Control is another essential feature that consumer messaging apps lack. With consumer-grade messaging apps, it’s difficult to manage employee account activity. IT and account administrators need 24/7, unhindered visibility into employee messaging accounts and data sharing. Enterprise messaging technology grants management complete access, allowing account administrators to view, call up and remotely wipe messages from the server. NetSfere’s enterprise mobile messaging service also features controls such as limits to attachments by type and platform, web-based control access, role-based user authorization and administrator-controlled message retention settings.

Whether an employee account needs to be deactivated or companies need to maintain their corporate data retention policies, an effective secure messaging platform like NetSfere gives C-level company execs and IT administrators complete control over corporate accounts.

What’s at stake
Teams are becoming increasingly distributed. Remote working has increased 159% over the last 15 years and is becoming even more accelerated due to COVID-19. This new working paradigm makes it more critical than ever to give IT departments the administrative controls they need to manage the distribution of information across the enterprise. Control issues are also compounded with the rise of BYOD (bring your own device) in enterprises. A recent Messaging At Work report found that that 30% of respondents prefer to use their own device for work. Without an enterprise level of control in mobile messaging platforms, BYOD can increase the struggle for companies to protect against data loss and ensure that communications remain secure.

Compliance

No matter the industry – healthcare, finance, hospitality, etc. – there are federal and corporate mandates related to data retention. Consumer-grade messaging applications are not built to comply with these mandates. Enterprise-grade mobile messaging solutions are. While consumer-grade messaging applications don’t do much to ensure enterprises stay within regulation guidelines, a robust enterprise mobile messaging platform simplifies compliance with HIPAA, FINRA, Sarbanes-Oxley and other mandates. NetSfere’s enterprise mobile messaging platform ensures full compliance with data retention policies, featuring the administrative, physical and technical safeguards critical for compliance with regulatory requirements.

What’s at stake
Failure to comply with data retention mandates inevitably results in non-compliance fees and federal sanctions. A study from Ponemon and Globalscape reports that it is 2.71 times more costly for an organization not to comply with mandates. The average cost of compliance is $5.47 million versus an average of $14.82 million for noncompliance.

The stakes are high for enterprises to adopt a mobile first messaging strategy that ensures security, control and compliance. Using consumer-grade messaging services is a roll of the dice in all of these critical areas.

NetSfere is the right choice for companies that want true enterprise security, control and compliance. To learn more about NetSfere, contact us today.