Protecting Business Communication: The Encryption Challenge & Solution

You may find it surprising, but according to various estimates, between 60 and 80 percent of business communications (chat, voice, video, email, document sharing, etc.) is still unencrypted. In many cases, even solutions that provide encryption are often vulnerable.

Last year’s Salt Typhoon hack of multiple U.S. telecommunications companies highlighted significant vulnerabilities in our communication infrastructures. These intrusions granted attackers access to sensitive phone calls, text messages, and extensive user metadata, underscoring the critical need for robust security measures.

If your organization uses Teams, you may think you’re well protected, but if you take a minute to scan this blog post by secure data specialists Virtru, you’ll see that you may not be as secure as you imagined. If your team uses Slack, maybe you should read this post from the Mimecast blog about high-profile Slack data breaches over the last few years.

And if your response to these threats was to switch to consumer tools like WhatsApp and Signal, they may still expose user metadata or be susceptible to exploitation by advanced persistent threat groups. 

So, why is so much business communication still unencrypted? The answer is actually pretty simple. Most communications platforms were designed to be efficient at communications, and security has always been a secondary concern - usually addressed after system design has matured. At Wire, we look at security differently. At Wire, security and usability have always gone hand in hand. The end result is a platform that delivers the security organizations require while offering the ease of use and flexibility teams need to work efficiently.

Understanding Communication Security Risks

The Biggest Security Flaws in Enterprise Communication

Enterprises rely on digital collaboration more than ever, yet many fail to recognize the glaring security gaps in their communication tools. The most common flaws include:

• Lack of End-to-End Encryption (E2EE): Many platforms encrypt data in transit or at rest but fail to protect messages from the moment they’re sent until they reach the intended recipient
• Man-in-the-middle (MitM) Attacks: Without robust encryption, attackers can intercept and/or manipulate data mid-transmission
• Data Retention & Compliance Risks: Many communication platforms store vast amounts of historical messages, creating an attractive target for hackers and regulatory scrutiny
• Weak Access Controls: Poor identity verification mechanisms allow unauthorized access, increasing the risk of corporate espionage and insider threats

How Teams, Slack, and Google Leave Businesses Exposed

Popular communication tools like Microsoft Teams, Slack, and the Google Workspace were built for productivity, not security. While they offer some level of encryption, they leave enterprises exposed in critical ways:

• Teams & Slack: Messages are encrypted in transit but decrypted on the server, making them accessible to service providers and potential attackers
• Google Workspace (Gmail, Drive, Chat, and Meet): While Google encrypts data at rest and in transit, it does not provide end-to-end encryption by default for all Workspace services. This means data is decrypted on Google’s servers, allowing Google to process content for spam filtering, AI features, and compliance controls. As a result, Google has technical access to unencrypted customer data
• Lack of Zero Trust Architecture: These platforms assume that messages within their ecosystems are secure by default, ignoring the increasing threats of credential leaks and unauthorized access

Wire - Setting the Standard for Secure Enterprise Communication

There are so many complex and intractable issues in modern business that require massive organizational efforts to resolve. With Wire, secure communications isn’t one of those issues. Wire provides a fast, simple and easy-to-adopt platform that ensures gold-standard security for your communications.

Wire is the first secure collaboration platform designed to meet the demands of modern organizations. Wire provides end-to-end encrypted messaging, voice calls, video calls, and file sharing, ensuring that all forms of communication remain confidential and protected from unauthorized access. 

Wire leads the industry for secure enterprise communication with its E2EE-by-default approach, ensuring that every conversation remains private and protected, without compromising usability.

• Always-on E2EE Across All Messages, Calls, and Files: Wire encrypts every message, call, and shared file from sender to recipient—no exceptions
• MLS for Secure Group Communication: Wire’s implementation of MLS ensures large-scale enterprise messaging benefits from the most advanced and secure cryptographic approach available, including message confidentiality, message integrity and authentication, membership authentication, asynchronicity, forward secrecy, post-compromise security, and scalability
• GDPR, NIS2 Compliant: Wire meets the world’s most stringent security and privacy standards, including GDPR, NIS2, HIPAA, and ISO 27001 standards, making it the ideal solution for regulated industries
• Self-Hosting & Data Sovereignty: Wire gives enterprises control over their data, allowing them to deploy on-premise or in private cloud environments, ensuring complete data sovereignty where needed
• Metadata is protected: Wire also addresses critical security concerns like metadata protection. By minimizing data retention and ensuring that even metadata is secured, Wire reduces the risk of information leakage that could be exploited by malicious actors
• Security without the hassles: Traditional secure enterprise apps have been clunky, driving users to riskier shadow IT communication channels. Wire solves this with a simple, intuitive experience where security is always on and always invisible to users

Take The Next Step In Securing Your Communications With Wire

By integrating Wire as a pillar of their secure communications strategy, government, public sector organizations, and enterprises in highly regulated sectors can effectively mitigate risks associated with both infrastructure breaches and vulnerabilities in consumer-grade applications, ensuring that their data remains secure against emerging cyber threats.