With the world’s organizations and government agencies turning to digital technologies for all operations, the need for secure collaboration is at an all-time high. End-to-end encryption (E2EE) facilitates secure communications across networks, keeping all data at rest and in transit safe from unauthorized users.
E2EE technology doesn’t come without controversy. Recently, law enforcement agencies and E2EE technology companies found themselves at opposite ends of the debate over keeping all communications private versus protecting the public interest. At Wickr, we address the government’s position in this blog and here we will instead highlight the key ways that E2EE supports your secure collaboration efforts.
Why Do You Need Secure Collaboration?
Collaboration is a broad concept that takes many different forms in modern organizations. It may be part of a formal process dictating the involvement of subject matter experts (SMEs) in a workflow – or just a casual conversation between colleagues. In either case, the need to keep these conversations and information exchanges secure from unauthorized entities remains a priority.
The key concepts of collaboration are:
- An awareness that each individual is part of a larger group working towards a shared purpose
- The motivation to gain consensus while solving problems or developing new strategies
- Proactively engaging with a wider audience while participating in shared workspaces to achieve a goal
The benefits of collaboration extend beyond just the organization. Individuals gain a sense of purpose when they understand the bigger picture and feel their involvement provides a positive contribution to the company. Similarly, organizations may collaborate with other businesses or external entities to solve complex problems as demonstrated by the world’s governments and health departments during the pandemic.
How E2EE Enables Secure Collaboration
E2EE plays an important role in these activities by scrambling the information and preventing unauthorized access at all times. Only the senders and recipients can see the information at their endpoints by using a decrypt key to unscramble the messages. Even if someone were able to intercept the data, they would need to have access to the decryption key on the recipient’s device before they could read the messages or monitor the communications.
This feature of E2EE makes it a great solution for sharing information safely and securely across an organization or government agency. It’s important to note that not all E2EE provide the same level of security. When evaluating a specific E2EE solution, make sure it has the five key elements discussed in this post.
What Secure Collaboration Tools Do You Need?
With changes to operating models where work from home (WFH) and remote access are now part of our daily lives, the collaboration tools you need should cover all communications. If you have E2EE capabilities available from a single platform, you can prevent individuals from using unauthorized applications that could expose the organization to security risks.
For effective E2EE collaboration, you need:
- One-to-one messaging to protect information passed between two individual endpoints
- Group messaging that allows multiple parties to access the information from numerous devices
- Video and voice communications for one-to-one or group calls including screen sharing
- File sharing and device synchronization as well as the ability to delete or recall communications
Additional Considerations for Secure E2EE Collaboration
Consider the following when choosing an E2EE collaboration platform:
Keeping Teams Connected Regardless of Their Physical Location
By securing all communications with E2EE at the source, your IT security personnel will have peace of mind that the data perimeter remains protected. Every person in the organization can interact with other team members and exchange information without the risk of exposing sensitive data over public networks.
Platform Efficiency
Encryption tools often influence IT performance that could disrupt your productivity. Wickr provides both on-premises and cloud deployment models, giving you the performance you require while maintaining secure communications at all times.
Key Management
Your encryption keys should always be under your control and not be available to the solution provider. By managing key material on the endpoints, you can ensure there are no gaps in your perimeter and prevent anyone from misusing your keys to gain access to your data. To learn more about key management, you can read this post.
Secure Collaboration with E2EE from Wickr
Wickr enables secure internal and external collaboration using our Global Federation feature. For teams that need to exchange information across geographies and outside of internal networks, Wickr provides state-of-the-art E2EE for improved security with cross-functional collaboration tools.
Wickr has a seamless onboarding process and comes with FIPS 140-2 certification. Our zero trust architecture, AD integration, and asynchronous E2EE make Wickr suitable for anyone, including government agencies and the military.
If you need to secure E2EE collaboration for your teams that doesn’t compromise on data security or performance, reach out to Wickr today.