With the rise of remote work due to COVID-19, more companies have leveraged collaboration tools for activities like video conferencing, instant messaging, and file sharing. After seeing how these tools can provide significant convenience and facilitate more flexible workplaces, many companies want to continue to leverage them on an ongoing basis. However, not every collaboration tool provides sufficient security. While some newer platforms might be trendy, they don’t necessarily hold up to tools from industry stalwarts like Cisco, which has a proven track record around security, compliance, and reliability. In particular, Cisco Webex uses end-to-end encryption to enable more secure collaboration among employees, wherever they’re located.
How Webex Uses End-to-End Encryption
Webex allows colleagues to easily communicate through video calls, instant messages, shared files, and whiteboards, which means that everything from trade secrets to customer data might be shared across the platform in one form or another. Without end-to-end encryption, cybercriminals could more easily intercept this data and information as it goes between the cloud and your employees’ devices.
Instead, Webex Teams provides companies looking for more advanced security with the ability to use end-to-end encryption for data transmitted over the platform, with encryption occurring every step of the way, right from the outset. That way, when data reaches the Webex cloud, it’s already encrypted.
“As a result, even if one of these cloud components is fully compromised — a situation where an “encryption at rest” and “encryption in transit” approach would fail — the attacker still can’t access customer data, because it’s encrypted end-to-end,” explains Cisco.
When Webex Does Not Use End-to-End Encryption
While end-to-end encryption provides powerful protection against cybercriminals, the feature isn’t always used for all communications, nor do companies necessarily always want full encryption for functional purposes. For example, while Webex encrypts voice and video calls using the Secure Real-Time Transport Protocol (SRTP), real-time media does not use full end-to-end encryption. That’s because the platform “decrypts real-time media for mixing, distribution, and public switched telephone network (PSTN) interoperability purposes,” notes Cisco. Plus, end-to-end encryption isn’t used for some messages and files, such as when they are integrated with third-party cloud storage platforms. That said, Webex Teams still provides a variety of security features beyond end-to-end encryption, such as enabling the use of passwords to view recordings and revoking access to Webex data from lost devices, so you can be confident in your security.
Make Sure You’re Using Collaboration Tools You Trust
While collaboration tools can be easy to use, you don’t want to trust them blindly and risk exposing sensitive data that ends up being very expensive for your company to recover from in the long run. Small businesses might be tempted to use whatever tools they already have on hand, but it’s important to understand current security risks and assess how end-to-end encryption, along with other security features from Webex Teams, can help your company stay productive while staying secure.
