February 9, 2024 Posted by Pocketstop in Mass Notification, Internal Communications Social Share

Businesses in 2024 run on digital data – making secure business communication vital to your organization’s success. While some industries such as insurance and healthcare are required by HIPPA to meet certain federal data encryption requirements, every industry should take steps to protect sensitive information.

This article explores what secure business communication entails, what industries require it, and how cybersecurity measures can benefit any business of any size.

Secure Business Communication with Encryption

Encryption serves as the backbone of data security. Whether protecting internal data or sensitive client information, encryption provides a last line of defense should a security breach occur. Even if your server is compromised, encrypted data remains protected.

How?

By encrypting (or scrambling) the data into a secret code that can only be deciphered by the intended recipient or any party with the unique key. Your business communication data can be encrypted while at rest on your server or other storage platform, and while in transit between two parties.

Protecting external communication with clients, customers, or patients is critical, but equally important are your business’ internal communications. Many of the cyberattacks treated in the next section exploit unprotected communication within organizations.

Types of Attacks to Guard Against

As cyberattacks continue to evolve, it’s important to maintain secure business communication to combat the latest criminal scheme. That said, even the newest attacks tend to be variations of a few common methods.

Here are a few of the types of cyberattacks most commonly employed by criminals.

Man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks occur when a criminal gains access to an organization’s network and positions themselves in the middle of the flow of internal communication. This essentially allows the attacker to spy on internal communication and exploit anything they learn, such as private information or usernames and pass codes. In addition to encryption, many companies utilize a virtual private

Phishing attacks describe any number of schemes in which a criminal attempts to trick an employee into downloading malware or exposing the company’s network to attack by a cleverly disguised email. Phishing emails often appear to come from a legitimate business or party, even linking to a fake website, but they are only a façade designed to gain access to your data.

Ransomware attacks occur when malicious actors essentially hijack an organization’s data until a ransom is paid. Cyber criminals can gain access to this unprotected information in a number of ways, but the determining factor is how they hold this information hostage in order to extort a business, financially or otherwise. Encrypting internal communication and data is just one of the many steps you can take to guard against cyberattacks.

According to an IBM report, the 2023 global average cost of a ransomware attack was $4.45 million USD.

Training, updated security, and encryption can significantly reduce your likelihood of falling victim to these and other cyberattacks.

Is sending an unencrypted email a HIPPA breach?

The answer is technically no, but probably yes. Confused?

First, understand that HIPPA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. It’s a federal law intended to keep sensitive patient information both secure and accessible.

The HIPPA Security Rule requires covered entities to implement “appropriate administrative, physical and technical safeguards to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and security of electronic protected health information.” Encrypted messaging provides the strongest safeguards for ensuring the privacy of Protected Health Information (PHI), because it uses advanced algorithms to convert plain text into an unintelligible format. The encrypted content is then deciphered by the intended user. Failing to utilize encryption for internal or external communication could be construed as deliberately placing sensitive information at risk. So when in doubt, protect!

*HIPPA does empower a patient to request PHI be sent via unencrypted email, but you’ll want to document that they acknowledge the risk. This gives patients unhindered access to their medical information, but it also makes their data vulnerable to exploitation.

What industries require secure business communications?

A number of industries must comply with federal regulations when it comes to storing and sharing digital data, but every business would be wise to implement protective measures to guard against malicious cyber attacks and enhance customer service.

Below are a few of the industries that fall under federal regulations for secure business communication:

• Financial Services
• Healthcare
• Government
• Energy
• Law
• Education
• Information Technology
• Hospitality
• Sales and Marketing
• Retail

Even if your business doesn’t fall under one of these regulated industrious, you should consider ways to implement secure business communication. Essentially, if you handle and/or store financial data of any kind (and what business doesn’t) or customers’ personal information, you need to secure your business. Just as criminals in the physical world look for easy targets, malicious actors in the digital world target the weakest systems. You don’t want to fall victim to a ransomware attack or place your customers at risk of identity theft.

Is my business too small for an encrypted messaging system?

A lot of businesses wonder whether or not they need an encrypted messaging system. The hesitancy is understandable, especially if you don’t regularly handle sensitive information like patient medical records – but given the cyber threats every person faces in 2024, secure business communication is always a good idea, even for small businesses.

Eric Goldstein, Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity says, “Our nation’s economic strength and future is grounded in the vitality and prosperity of America’s 33 million small businesses.”

As part of the government’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Goldstein knows that many small and medium businesses don’t make cybersecurity a top priority. Measures such as encrypted messaging may seem unnecessary or too expensive to implement. But “criminal groups and other malicious cyber actors,” Goldstein says, “are constantly looking for any insecure organization as an opportunity.”

According to Barracuda Networks, a leader in cybersecurity, small businesses are three times more likely to be targeted by criminals.

A Final Thought

Secure business communication via encryption is a first step towards keeping sensitive data safe and keeping your business strong. Other measures and training are needed as well, but the worst thing you can do is nothing. The threat of cyberattacks looms so large in 2024 that businesses simply can’t afford to operate without protective measures.

 

Looking for an ally to help secure your company’s communications?

RedFlag’s award-winning mass notification system meets SOC II requirements and has SSO capabilities for ongoing management of admin access for security. Additionally, RedFlag utilizes two-factor authentication and failover architecture via the Microsoft Azure cloud to keep your network secure.

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