Communication between employees is crucial to the success of your organization. With many employees today working remotely, it’s essential that these communications be as secure as possible – especially when one or more parties is connecting via a home network or public hotspot.
The best way to protect the sensitive information contained in your company’s communications is by employing strong encryption. By encrypting all your communications the same way you encrypt your valuable data, you ensure that malicious actors won’t be able to access the content of any of your communications, even if they’re intercepted.
What Encryption Is and How It Works
Encryption works by scrambling the digital communications from the sender. The encrypted communications can’t be received until the proper decryption key is applied. The longer the decryption key, in terms of bits, the less likely it can be cracked by hackers.
There are two primary forms of encryption used today – symmetric and asymmetric. Symmetric encryption encodes a message with a single key; that key is also used to decrypt the message. Asymmetric encryption, sometimes referred to as public-key encryption, uses two separate keys; one key is used to encrypt the message and the other is used to decrypt the message. Of these two approaches, asymmetric encryption is the most secure.
Encryption for communications can be either simple or end-to-end. Simple encryption encrypts a message when it is sent to and stored by a communications service provider. End-to-end encryption encrypts a message as it is sent and the message remains encrypted throughout transmission to the recipient, where it is finally decrypted. Messages protected by simple encryption can be intercepted in transit or hacked after they’ve been stored on a provider’s servers. End-to-end encryption is more secure, as any message intercepted in transit remains encrypted and cannot be accessed by unauthorized parties.
Even though end-to-end encryption is more secure, only 18% of global communications traffic is estimated to use this method.
How Encryption Protects Your Critical Communications
Encryption is the best security for sensitive enterprise communications, especially communications taking place off-premises. Remote workers, especially those using their own personal mobile devices, represent a particularly significant security threat; Check Point Software Technologies found that 100% of companies with a large number of employees using mobile devices had experienced a mobile-based cyberattack.
How can encryption help to protect your enterprise’s critical communications from being hijacked? Here are four of the most significant factors.
Ensures the Sender and Recipient are Authentic
The first thing that encryption does is ensure that both the sender and recipient of any communication are who they say they are. Encryption ensures that the identities of all participants are correct. It also verifies the origin and destination of all communications.
This authentication is enabled by a special encryption key exchange used by message senders, typically involving a username and password, to prove their identities. Nonrepudiation is also used to provide the sender with proof of delivery and the recipient with proof of the sender’s identity.
Ensures Confidentiality
Another way that encryption protects your communications is to ensure confidentiality. Since only users with proper permissions can access encrypted communications, unauthorized users have no way of knowing who is sending or receiving any given message. All identities are completely hidden from anyone not authorized to take place in a given communication.
Ensures Data Integrity
Encryption can be used not just for text, voice, or video communications but also to secure files attached to these communications or shared in other ways. In this scenario, data integrity refers to the notion that data is transferred and processed in predictable ways so that it doesn’t change in transit. Encryption ensures that any data received is from the identified sender and has not been altered or tampered with in any fashion.
Ensures Maximum Productivity
Encrypted communications provides peace of mind for both you and your employees. When you and your employees know that their communications are secure they’re free to work more productively. Your organization will experience less downtime due to hijacked or intercepted communications – and your IT staff will spend less time recovering from cyber incidents. The protection afforded by encrypted communications lets everyone do their job without worrying about the efforts of malicious actors.
Let Wickr Help You Protect Your Enterprise’s Critical Communications
Wickr’s suite of secure communication and collaboration tools employs military-grade 256-bit end-to-end encryption, along with ephemeral messaging, for all your text, voice, and video communications. The Wickr platform ensures that your enterprise communications remain totally secure so your employees, wherever they’re located, can work safely and productively.
Contact Wickr today to learn how we can help you protect your enterprise’s critical communications.