Security and compliance in modern communications.

Theta Lake released its 2022 Modern Communications Security and Compliance Report today, detailing the use of communications tools today, existing methods for handling security and compliance, and the challenges faced by organizations.

Key findings.

It was found that unmonitored communication channels are the biggest risk, with two-thirds of respondents saying that it’s likely that other employees use unmonitored channels. 39% of respondents report that their current archiving tools have gaps in coverage. Chat conversations, in particular, are the biggest risks to privacy and security, with file transfer and link sharing considered risky features. 4 out of 5 respondents working in financial services anticipate increased regulations in monitoring video. 85% of companies have trouble fetching records, with 52% finding it difficult to search current communications channels, and 33% requiring “significant manual resources” to check more than one channel.

Communications and security.

Chat, SMS, mobile messaging, and video are all methods of communication that are commonplace in the workplace now, following the pandemic. Risks around security for these communications methods, however, have not been adequately addressed in most cases. Modern compliance and security tools are said to be a necessity for these new methods of communication, and enterprises are being challenged to meet regulations. The report identifies that in Gartner’s strategic planning assumptions, it is said by 2025 that 45% of regulated enterprise customers will supervise audio and video content to meet compliance requirements, and 35% of businesses will archive nonregulated workstream collaboration and meeting solutions.

Challenges and recommendations.

The greatest challenges for enterprises with communications are unmonitored communications, in-meeting communications, video communications, finding and extracting records, supervising modern communications, and security and privacy. Theta Lake recommends taking a risk assessment, keeping policies up-to-date, ensuring the implementation of effective security settings, keeping existing compliance practices, taking an incremental approach, and utilizing AI-assisted compliance processes.