Protect Your Business With Safe Texts
There are more than 3 million text messages transported between mobile devices every minute. While this form of communication is clearly preferred for both personal and professional reasons, it poses severe security risks for the workplace.
TeleMessage, a provider that aims to provide secure texting, says workers should be careful when texting critical work data and suggests they think twice before using messaging apps like WhatsApp and iMessage. Several surveys have reported that 95 percent of employees polled use their mobile devices to send texts that are work-related. What’s even more alarming, is that 75 percent of workers reported sending sensitive or even confidential information via text. Less than 15 percent of workers questioned reported that their company had regulations in place to limit the use of texting for work-related data.
With so many workers using mobile devices for texting critical information, a lost or stolen phone is tremendously dangerous for a business. Apparently, 44 percent of those who have lost their phone reported leaving it behind in a public place; and 68 percent of those who fell victim to a lost or stolen phone are unable to recover it.
Keep in mind that no opportunity is too small for cyber-criminals. It reportedly only takes one text to hack nearly 100 million Android phones. During an infamous Android attack, six critical vulnerabilities left all but 5 percent of Android phones exposed.
The tech giant, Gartner, predicted that 50 percent of team communication will be done via group collaboration apps by 2018. That also includes secure text messaging apps, which work by allowing a company to provide user accounts, create corporate address books and groups, along with allowing corporate policies to be enforced. Plus, the apps will offer security features such as end-to-end encryption and remote data wipe from lost devices or accounts that have been deactivated.
And who hasn’t seen Inspector Gadget? Remember his self-destructing messages? They will become a reality with secure text messaging apps.
Some other benefits to consider:
- API integration of the solution into corporate IT systems
- Users are notified when their messages have been sent, delivered and read
- Message archiving
- Auditing controls for compliance and regulation
TeleMessage’s software has been deployed by thousands of enterprises, and their solution portfolio includes secure text messaging for companies and high-volume text messaging services.
