Wire at Blackhat 2019

Wire is proud to be pushing the boundaries of standardization with Messaging Layer Security (MLS). Raphael Robert discusses the new era of secure group messaging at Black Hat in Las Vegas, August 7th. The session will shed further light on the ongoing developments and progress of Messaging Layer Security (MLS).

What is MLS ?

For those not able to be there - the short abstract is that MLS is an end-to-end encrypted group messaging protocol developed by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), that aims to facilitate greater security on enterprise messaging platforms. MLS has three major goals:

• Make secure messaging in groups more efficient
• Increase group messaging security (whilst maintaining security guarantees such as Forward Secrecy and Post-Compromise Security)
• Become a standard protocol that everyone can use freely and safely

The plan is ultimately to become an open standard so that all platforms can take advantage of the security MLS offers.

Why is it important for organizations

In many modern enterprise environments, products use transport encryption between client and server but the messages and content being shared aren't encrypted on the server. This information usually ends up in a large database where it becomes vulnerable to third-party access. A cybercriminal only needs an employee's credentials to break in and get it.

"The current corporate approach to encryption is a huge risk, which doesn't really meet the requirements of businesses in general"

Raphael Robert, Head of Security at Wire

Why is it important for Wire ?

In our mission to be the most secure collaboration platform, Wire has a vision for secure messaging: federated environments based on open standards. Wire, alongside other founding members, initiated MLS as an industry protocol in 2016 and believes in its future because of the following:

• Wire believes that in the next decade, decisions about use of enterprise messaging platforms will be driven by increasing awareness of issues around privacy and security
• Currently, there is no standardised approach to encrypted messaging, therefore Wire initiated MLS as an industry protocol and has been at the forefront of its innovation since 2016
• Wire fully aligns with the goals of MLS: Wire wants a modern protocol that is standard because Wire believes in standards as an organization
• Wire wants a protocol that can address the technical problem of having large groups with entry and encryption
• Wire sees federation as a long-term vision – both a goal for MLS and a goal for Wire
• Wire initiated MLS in 2016 to combat the industry-wide challenges, and seeks to drive it at every possible chance so that all platforms can take advantage of the security it offers

Learn more

Ahead of his talk at BlackHat 2019, Raphael Robert was interviewed by Dark Reading on the direction of MLS and why it is important to the industry –providing a good reading for understanding why MLS is fundamental to the change the corporate work environment is undergoing.

Meet us

If you are interested in meeting the team at Blackhat 2019 - to learn about Wire, forge partnerships or share thoughts on the future of work - just send a request to leila@wire.com and we will find a time.