Business success depends on effective communication. By that, we don’t mean companies should communicate “at” their clients. Instead, we should create easier avenues for two-way flow to match our clients’ needs.
Communication has become less formal: we seldom write formal business letters or memos anymore. Instead, we increasingly rely on smartphones, chat apps, and social media platforms to talk and listen.
However, these communication channels and file-sharing platforms are vulnerable to cyber threats.
The Business Risks of Insecure Communication Channels
Business communications can feel like walking on a tightrope. You risk alienation and dwindling client numbers if you can’t get your message across. On the other hand, there are plenty of risks in using communication channels without proper security measures:
- Data breaches can expose sensitive info. It can lead to financial losses and damage to your business reputation.
- Identity theft (hackers can intercept personal info for malicious purposes).
- Loss of client trust, causing decreased loyalty, negative word-of-mouth, and potential legal action.
- Compliance issues with industry regulations on data protection and privacy.
- Stunted collaboration if clients worry about the security of their sensitive documents and conversations.
Secure collaboration may appear at the bottom of this list, but it can make or break a business. If clients suspect that you’re cutting corners on data security, they may stop communicating with you.
For example, why should a client share details of his household content with his insurer if a hacker could put his hands on the list?
Why share medical conditions with a medical practice that does not restrict support staff’s data access on a need-to-know basis? How can clients trust us with their banking information if we allow employees to log into the network from unsecured WiFi systems?
When clients suspect you of lax cybersecurity, they will stop trusting your business. The answer is to secure your business communication channels with strong cybersecurity measures.
Protecting Many Communication Channels Simultaneously
Secure communication relies on four principles: integrity, encryption, authentication, and non-repudiation. When we use a variety of communication channels, it becomes harder to conform to all four principles.
- Message Integrity
Can both parties be sure that the message has not been tampered with? Can the receiver be confident that the message came from the purported sender? Both problems can be solved by using encryption.
- Encryption
The communication and encryption protocols for email, like SMTPS/TLS, PGP, and S/MIME are well established. However, businesses increasingly use popular end-to-end encrypted chat apps like WhatsApp and Signal. While these communication methods rely on trusted protocols, they have a weak point.
People work on the move. They often connect to the internet on networks other than secure office networks. Hackers or snoopers may be able to intercept data via, for example, MItM attacks.
If hackers can steal your staff’s login credentials, they’ll have access to your carefully chosen secure chat apps, data storage platforms, and emails.
For this reason, a VPN for Android or other operating systems, have become an essential tool for safer communication.
Your staff’s home offices or public WiFi connections are unsafe unless they use an additional layer of security like a virtual private network. But what is a VPN, and why would you need one if you’re using encrypted email and end-to-end- encrypted chat channels?
A VPN is a security tool that ensures privacy. It creates an encrypted tunnel between your device and the internet and then routes the transmission via the VPN’s remote servers. Apart from masking your IP address and location, the encryption protects the data from intercepting or tampering.
- Authentication
Digital communication authentication relies on using people’s unique characteristics to automate identification.
These characteristics can be biological, such as fingerprints or facial recognition. Alternatively, businesses can use 2FA or MFA verification options to identify users before giving them access to restricted content.
- Non-repudiation
All these factors add up to non-repudiation. Neither sender nor receiver of a message/transaction can deny the existence of the message. The trail of digital signatures, message authentication codes, and timestamps proves it.
5 Tips for Secure Business Communication
Implementing secure communication channels is relatively easy and can be done incrementally:
- Use encrypted email services and strict authentication policies.
- Opt for chat apps that use end-to-end encryption and do not store your data. Encryption ensures no one can see the content unless they have a matching private key to de-scramble the message.
- Get your clients on board. Ask them to use only secure messaging apps with end-to-end encryption to connect with you.
- Roll out company-wide VPNs. Your staff should never use unencrypted internet connections to log into your carefully selected encrypted chat apps and file-sharing platforms. Implementing the best VPN solution ensures they have a secure, encrypted connection, no matter where they’re working.
- Set up two-factor authentication (2FA). Urge staff and clients to use complex passwords for their online accounts.
Business Communication Is a Two-Way Street
Educate both employees and clients about the importance of secure communication. Advise them on the risks of unsecured channels. Get your clients involved in protecting their data.
Let them know that your staff always use encrypted connections to the internet, including any time they use their phones to check emails or send messages.
It demonstrates that you are security conscious and that their data protection is important to you. And that’s a message worth conveying if you want to build a successful business on trust.
