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Why consumer encrypted messaging apps are a threat to your business

Encrypted messaging tools like Signal, WhatsApp, and Telegram are increasingly finding their way into businesses as secure communication solutions.

While it may seem like a prudent decision to use them, these tools were not designed for business and may pose significant threats to the privacy, visibility, and control of your organization’s information. 

Why are they a threat?

1. Lack of Visibility – These tools don’t offer audit logs or records of what’s being said, shared and accessed.

2. Lack of Compliance – Without access control, these tools present risk of spoliation and other compliance issues.

3. Lack of Control – Data can flow in and out freely, including to unauthorized recipients.

How do Signal and LockDown differ?

LockDown provides the benefits of the best encrypted messaging tools while addressing the privacy, security, visibility, compliance and control requirements of business.

Invite-Only

LockDown for Business is a private world for secure and controlled collaboration. You authorize who may enter your secure environment, control what they may do while inside, and dictate when they leave.

This ensures your team members may only share sensitive information with those you expressly permit. Other encrypted apps allow users to message anyone.

Tiered Roles

Hierarchical role-based permissions enable you to control what people in your enterprise environment can do with the information you share. From read-only to full export permissions, there is a role for everyone inside, and outside your organization.

Visibility and Audit Logs

All files on LockDown are tracked via an immutable audit log that enables you to keep tabs on who has viewed your files, and when. 

Data Loss Prevention tools cannot identify, monitor or block encrypted data. This means that with other encrypted messaging apps, you have no visibility into the encrypted data that’s moving around. LockDown solves this problem.

Ownership

With consumer-based encrypted messaging apps, sensitive conversations take place in personal accounts, meaning your business has lost ownership and control of messages and files.

LockDown Business provides you with the benefits of encrypted messaging while maintaining ownership of the data

Maintain Compliance and Prevent Spoliation

Built upon some of the world’s most advanced encryption and key handling technology, LockDown ensures compliance, visibility and data control while preventing spoliation and leakage.

With LockDown, policy is automatically enforced through technology – thereby eliminating the challenges of password management, manual data retention and other problems subject to user error and/or insider threat.

Control

With other apps, you lose control of your files after you share them. File recipient(s) can copy, print, export and share what you send with anyone (without your knowledge).

With LockDown, you maintain control of your files after you share them. You decide if they can be copied, printed, exported or taken off of the app, and can adjust these permissions at any time (so you can always change your mind). You can also destroy a message or file after it has been sent, rendering it completely inaccessible to the recipient.

Annie Cute