When adopting a secure messaging app for business communications, there are several key features and considerations that might be missing or underemphasised in the current offerings of Signal, WhatsApp, and Telegram. Additionally, if you're using live chat through Teams or Slack, you should be aware that chat conversations are not end-to-end encrypted.
In this post we explore critical areas that could be improved or added to enhance security and usability for professional use within mainstream messaging apps and how Sentinel Solutions deliver on these requirements:
Advanced Security Features
1. No Phone Number Requirement
- Issue: Private messaging apps like Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal all rely on a phone number for use. Requiring a phone number for sign up compromises the anonymity and security of your staff. Especially when employees have to use their personal mobile device in order to participate in work-related conversations.
- Sentinel Solutions: Our secure messaging apps allow account creation through email as the unique identifier, without needing a phone number.
2. End-to-End Encryption for All Chats
- Issue: The conversations you have with work colleagues will often involve sensitive information, when this happens via a chat app, you want to make sure this remains secure. Incredibly, mainstream chat apps Telegram, Slack and Microsoft Teams do not offer end-to-end encryption of your chat-based communications.
- Sentinel Solutions: With Sentinel's secure messaging apps, PiNG and Chat Channels, encryption is enabled by default. This includes all types of communication and attachments or posts in the channels.
3. Metadata
- Issue: Even if the message content is encrypted, metadata (such as who is communicating with whom) in apps like WhatsApp and Telegram is not. If collected, this metadata is very valuable information for advertisers, political organisations, and potential hackers.
- Sentinel Solutions: The Sentinel platform only collects functional metadata and further encrypts this data to prevent tracking and profiling of users’ communication patterns.
Data Privacy and Control
4. No Data Harvesting
- Issue: Mainstream private chat apps like WhatsApp will share certain data with parent companies (Meta). This can create privacy complications when you begin using such a solution for work-related communications.
- Sentinel Solutions: Both of Sentinel's encrypted messaging apps and the platform itself do not harvest, share, or sell any user data.
5. Granular Permissions
- Issue: Access to contacts, storage, and other device features is often too broad. In tools like WhatsApp and Telegram, these permissions aren't available.
- Sentinel Solution: You system ddmin can set different levels of permissions and the system restricts views to only channels users are assigned to. These permissions minimise Sentinel data exposure.
Professional Features
6. Compliance with Data Protection Regulations
- Issue: If you're a business operating in fields like healthcare and finance, you must consider and comply with regulations like GDPR and HIPAA. All three mainstream private chat solutions - WhatsApp Telegram, are Signal - do not meet the compliance standards of these key regulations.
- Sentinel Solutions: The Sentinel platform is built with compliance in mind and adheres to all relevant data protection and privacy regulations. This compliance extends to both secure messaging apps PiNG and Chat Channels.
7. Virus Scanning of all uploads
- Issue: WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal do not virus scan files prior to upload, this can introduce malware and viruses that can then infect your networks. This issue does not affect Slack and Microsoft Teams, where both implement virus and malware detection systems that scan files prior to upload.
- Sentinel Solution: Across the Sentinel platform and secure messaging apps, all content is scanned in realtime and any infected files are quarantined and flagged to IT prior to upload to prevent network infection and spread.
8. Audit Logs and Reporting
- Issue: As an organisation, certain business communications need to be tracked for both legal and compliance purposes, especially in relation to crisis response. Using WhatsApp, Signal, or Telegram means you are not in control of conversation logs, as users can delete their sent messages thereby tampering with the audit trail. Both Slack and Teams can be adjusted by system admins to prevent this from happening.
- Sentinel Solution: All audit logs, usage reports, and messages are retained in your Sentinel system, with all data encrypted at rest. Retention policies meet best in class industry standards and users do not have the ability to delete communications, impacting the audit logs.
9. Role-Based Access Control
- Issue: Professional environments require different access levels for different users. WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram do not provide this level of granularity. You are either an admin with full control, or a participant with not control.
- Sentinel Solution: The Sentinel system supports role-based access controls to manage permissions for team members effectively. Giving you the ability to control who has access to groups and channels, including what they can and can't do within them. Giving you the security required in managing work-based chat conversations.
Usability and Integration
10. Multi-Device Support
- Issue: Professional users often need to access their communications from multiple devices securely.
- Sentinel Solution: Sentinel's secure messaging apps deliver robust multi-device support provided on iOS, Android and Windows devices, without compromising security.
11. User-Friendly Interface
- Issue: Security features can sometimes make an app difficult to use.
- Sentinel Solution: Our platform maintains a balance between advanced security features and a user-friendly interface to encourage adoption among your teams.
Additional Features
12. Secure File Sharing
- Issue: Sharing files securely is crucial for professional communication.
- Sentinel Solution: Sentinel PiNG and Chat Channels are fully encrypted messaging apps that deliver secure, end-to-end encrypted file sharing, with files further encrypted at rest.
13. Regular Security Audits
- Issue: Trust in the platform’s security can only be maintained through transparency.
- Sentinel Solution: Sentinel Spaces platform is ISO 27001 : 2013 compliant and we conduct regular security audits to ensure the integrity of our platform and secure messaging apps.
14. Air-Gapped and client-dedicated redundant server architecture
- Issue: Hackers target supply chains where they can access and disrupt multiple clients. This makes tools like Microsoft Teams and Slack enticing targets that are more likely to face attacks. Depending on your platform supplier, you may often find your data is stored on the same servers as countless other individuals or businesses.
- Sentinel Solution: As a Sentinel customer, you will have your own server cluster that is separate from all other Sentinel clients, preventing cross-infection.
Conclusion
While Signal, WhatsApp, and Telegram all offer robust features, a truly secure chat platform for professionals would need to address the above areas to provide comprehensive security, privacy, and usability tailored to professional needs. Despite providing robust security across a range of areas, even Teams and Slack fall short in being a truly secure messaging app suitable for the most sensitive work-based communications.
Here at Sentinel, these security protections and capabilities have been thought out and built-in to be more suitable for industries that handle sensitive information and require strict compliance with privacy regulations.
Blog Cover Photo by AbsolutVision on Unsplash
