What Are Secure Messaging Apps?
Secure messaging apps are those messaging apps that are approved by the company’s IT admin to be used by the employees of that organization. Who hasn’t heard of WhatsApp or Facebook? These social media sites and messaging services are ubiquitous and here to stay. Facebook has two billion active users and is still growing in popularity. WhatsApp has more than a billion users. Skype has 100 million as of this number. Then, there are the other smaller chats that have a lesser user base but are equally popular like Hangouts, Slack and Line, etc. The app’s usage varies as per generation, age, taste, and country. And, it has to become an integral part of human life that each day begins and ends with chatting on these apps.
Importance of Cloud Security
In an enterprise, cloud security vulnerabilities are usually overlooked. What happens is that even mobile is enough to subvert the well-protected perimeter, security gates, and secure connections to the suppliers as well as the customers in any firm. Documents can be photographed, meetings can be recorded and confidential data can be sent to contacts anywhere across the globe without leaving any physical trace and without restrictions through cell phones. In cases where it is pertinent that enterprises have to expose their confidential data to the employees, then sometimes in such scenarios, the employees are usually told to deposit their mobiles in the lockers before entering the premises. Even sometimes, a thorough search of the employees’ belongings is made before entering or exiting, so that any printed unauthorized copy is not taken out of the premises.
Always Encourage Employees to Use Only the Secure Messaging Apps
There are organizations that ban the entry of user devices and provide for the devices on-premises. But since on, owing to the flexibility, the organizations had to make changes and allow the employees to bring their own devices giving rise to the now popular concept of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). So when you think of tablets, personal laptops, and mobiles each employee carries to his/her office, how would the enterprise keep a check on the unapproved apps? Some solutions like those provided by Cloud Access Security Brokers can be incorporated this helps in preventing the users from accessing unapproved apps while they are inside the office premises. These essential CASB solutions control and check the use of any unauthorized apps. Thus the employees will be able to use only the corporate-secured messaging apps and this largely solves the problem of the enterprises.
4 Steps to Secure Messaging Apps
Here are the 4 key factors needed by enterprises to restrict the use of unapproved messaging apps by its staff, as follows:
- Use of messaging apps secured by technical controls and policies.
- Use incident reporting when there is an inevitable sensitive message leak.
- Implementing policy key to all the messaging apps
- Educate, inspect and enforce a policy to ensure messaging security
Using Strict Restriction Policies and Guidance for Securing Messaging Apps
- All the unapproved connections are to be completely blocked including any non-corporate phone signals. Not the preferred solution, but many organizations strictly adhere to this policy.
- Policy wherein all work-related messages will be routed only through corporate-approved apps.
- The best policy is to be a bit liberal and find out the main messaging apps that your employees want. So, with the help of CASB solutions, enterprises should work a bit smartly in controlling the use of some approved messaging apps, so that the enterprise security is not at risk, and at the same time, the employees also get what they want.
CASB Solutions to Check the Use of Unapproved Messaging Apps
BYOD is a must in enterprises when flexibility is to be provided to employees. Thus, the problem of using only the approved messaging apps can be solved by imposing certain restrictions on the deployment of appropriate CASB solutions. CASB solutions will help the IT departments of enterprises to check for unwanted data transfers between devices and help secure data through strong restrictions and policies imposed for using only the approved messaging apps, whose violation by any of the employees is instantaneously reported.