Organizations hold a responsibility to safeguard confidential information about customers, partners, and employees.
Businesses also cannot refuse data; the best solution is secure business communications. To organize security operations, you need to adhere to the basic principles.
They are known and not a secret, but many companies still ignore them. Here are basic security strategies for business communications that will increase your chances of passing an audit.
#1 Clear Distribution Of Personal And Commercial Data
When developing a corporate e-mail policy, it is crucial for a company to explicitly define acceptable use of the organization’s e-mail system.
The policy should clearly state whether personal use is permitted, along with specific details such as the number of e-mail messages or the percentage of office hours allowed for personal use.
Additionally, guidelines must be established to address inappropriate or offensive correspondence and content.
#2 Strong Encryption
Strong encryption is the foundation for handling sensitive information. Your secure business communication solution must have support for S/MIME encryption and various security protocols, including DMARC, DKIM, and SPF.
Even if a compromised server is involved in transmitting your encrypted emails, hosting documents, or signing processes, the sensitive information remains protected.
#3 Call Recording
One of the regulator’s requirements is to record calls and store them for 5 years. This does not apply to all countries, and even individual states have different laws on this matter.
From a security point of view, recording phone calls prevents violations of agreements. Even a conversation recording app is enough to later have strong evidence in court if one of the clients is dissatisfied with the product or service.
With the call recording app iPhone, you can record conversations with minimal effort and expense and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.
Call Recorder for iPhone can also protect recorded calls using a password or FaceID, but it is better to store them on a secure server with encryption.
#4 Establish Clear Policies
To ensure the uniqueness of your business, start by establishing clear communication security policies.
Before drafting these policies, conduct a comprehensive risk assessment to understand potential risks and how to address them.
Your cybersecurity policies should cover various areas. This includes determining which content can be sent and viewed, as well as by whom.
Additionally, encompasses other areas such as system and network management, digital asset management, physical security, vulnerability management, and incident management.
Your security policies should account for human fallibility to avoid turning simple activities like a group video chat into a security risk.
#5 Invest In VoIP Security
If a VoIP phone system is used for business communication, prioritizing VoIP security becomes crucial.
While VoIP calls generally possess a level of security, it is better to proactively implement measures that prevent potential threats such as hackers, malware, viruses, VoIP phishing, network attacks, and remote eavesdropping.
To prevent these VoIP security concerns, encrypt voice traffic and secure your WiFi or internet service. Regularly conduct security checks and review call detail records for any unauthorized or suspicious activity.
#6 Training
Training is crucial when it comes to technology. Nowadays, we work with a broader range of apps and tools than ever before.
It’s important to remember that most of your staff are not technological experts and may not fully grasp the tools they use. Consequently, this can pose security risks for your business.
To mitigate these risks, it is imperative to provide your staff with the necessary training and support.
Simply directing them to an ebook or YouTube video and leaving them to figure things out on their own is inadequate. Additionally, completing the training does not guarantee comprehension.
Ensuring that your staff understands security requirements is essential. They need to know how to use technology without exposing themselves or your business to avoidable security problems.
After all, potential clients will be deterred if your online booking system experiences security breaches.
#7 Creating A ‘Work From Home’ Security Standard
To safeguard your business from potential breaches, IT and Information Security teams must establish clear and easily understandable standards for agents when they work remotely.
Today, security leaders are adopting a proactive approach to threat monitoring and risk mitigation. They are restructuring at-home security practices by:
- Managing devices by restricting VPN connections
- Limiting agents’ access to only necessary information
- Implementing multiple authentication methods and enabling 2-step authentication
- Enabling reporting and analytics for complete visibility into tool usage and user location
#8 Deactivate Unused Devices
Shutting down unused devices connected to your unified communication (UC) system is a recommended practice.
Additionally, instruct employees to close or sign out of UC apps when not in use. Open and unattended apps and devices are vulnerable targets for hackers.
#9 Adopting New Forms Of Authentication And Authorization
Call centers prioritize adopting more secure methods of authentication and authorization due to the increasing prevalence of cybersecurity crime.
According to a recent study, despite 54% of organizations expressing confidence in their knowledge-based authentication, 34% of security leaders plan to implement multi-factor authentication as an additional security layer.
Alongside multi-factor authentication, companies providing customer support through applications are investing in biometrics.
Biometric authentication utilizes face recognition, fingerprints, or iris recognition to access the applications.
Not only does biometrics provide security, but it also enhances the customer experience by enabling direct access to live chat and other communication features within the app, eliminating the need for further validation.
Conclusion
Too much depends on how secure your business communications are: reputation, financial stability, compliance with regulatory requirements, etc. Does it make sense to ignore such an important aspect of business?