Messaging applications are critical to the
success of the modern business, but it’s important that they don’t compromise
security in the pursuit of convenience. There is a specific set of criteria
involved with ensuring that your chosen messaging applications are secure.
The
Criteria
Ask yourself the following questions about
your messaging application:
- Are my messages encrypted (and how
encrypted are they)? - How transparent is the application
to scrutiny? - How are messages deleted?
- How much metadata is kept?
We’ll go through each question to help you
ascertain if the messaging platform you use is secure enough to use for
business.
Are My
Messages Encrypted? (And How Encrypted Are They?)
Encryption can scramble data so that it is
difficult to read to all those who don’t have a decryption key. We don’t want
to get into too much detail, but suffice to say that encryption can make your
data much more secure than it would be otherwise. While most major messaging
applications use encryption, not all of them follow the most secure of
practices.
For example, solutions like Google Hangouts
and Skype encrypt the messages that users send, but they also retain a copy of
the encryption keys. This is so they can access the messages sent to collect
data for advertising purposes. Unfortunately, this also means that the data
will be vulnerable if a cybercriminal manages to make their way onto the
application’s servers, or if the government were to issue a search warrant for
them.
Thankfully, end-to-end encryption is more
common with these kinds of apps, where the application holds the keys that
encrypt the data. The users also have a key to decrypt the data, meaning that
no other external party can access the contents of the messages. Some of these
include WhatsApp and Signal. While Skype does offer this option, it isn’t
enabled by default.
How
Transparent is the Application to Scrutiny?
It’s important that your messaging application
provider not only is honest about the state of security, but is also evaluated
by an independent and impartial expert that comes to the same conclusion. This
means that open-source applications are usually more trustworthy, as they have
been the subject of much closer scrutiny over the years. Examples of these
applications include Signal, Telegram, and Wickr, while WhatsApp and Facebook
Messenger aren’t true open-source, but are based on the same protocol as Signal.
An application that is closed-source, like iMessage, trusts the developer
entirely to maintain the security of the messages sent.
How Are
Messages Deleted?
What happens to messages after they have
reached their destination and been deleted? In truth, deletion might be the
best way to ensure the privacy of important information. Applications that
automatically delete messages within a certain amount of time can be great for
security. For example, Skype, Telegram, and Signal all have this capability. WhatsApp
even goes as far as deleting messages within 13 hours. Not all apps feature
self-deleting messages, and to be fair, nobody is stopping the recipient from
taking screenshots of messages, either. Thus, security is left to the
discretion of the recipient.
How
Much Metadata is Kept?
It’s also critical that your chosen
application is protected by the metadata it stores. Metadata contributes to
security through user profiling, which stores data of both the sender,
receiver, time of communication, IP address, and the device used. Thus, knowing
what kind of data is stored by the messaging application will help you best
preserve the security of this data.
Emerge can help you implement secure methods of communication for your business. To learn more, reach out to us at 859-746-1030.