Germany Turns to Encrypted Messaging in View of the EU Data Protection Legislation

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will apply to all 28 EU member states

The secure communications provider, VIPole, is expanding its customer base as the increasing number of teams in Germany are willing to shift to encrypted corporate messaging. This interest is likely caused by the recent major legislation changes in the EU and the data breaches in the telecom sector. The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming into effect in the spring of 2018 is one of the most far-reaching and comprehensive privacy legislation ever passed. The GDPR will apply to all 28 EU member states.

Germany is strongly committed to maintaining privacy and protecting data and governs the way is should be stored and accessed in organizations. Secure and compliant messaging with a built-in system for centrally controlling the settings and activities of the users and restrict access to data is a perfect way of staying safe while maintaining compliance with the law.

“A rising number of small and medium firms worldwide show interest in VIPole solutions which resulted in a boost of our corporate portfolio by 20% solely in the second quarter. What we especially appreciate is the significant growth in the number of German businesses among VIPole corporate clients,” — Christopher Miller, head of development.

Cost of a data breach

Edward Snowden’s leaks about the mass surveillance of NSA made many companies reconsider their security policies and adopt the solutions that protect against interceptions and snooping. Germany responded strongly to Snowden’s revelations, which involved Angela Merkel’s conversations. As a result, German intelligence agency BND “drastically reduced its cooperation with the US National Security Agency”. This also came as a sign to employ encryption on the top governmental level and in other spheres where secrecy is a priority.

In 2017, the extensive use of encryption in enterprises allowed to reduce the cost of breaches by $16 per capita.

According to Symantec’s 2017 Internet Security Threat Report, Germany is among top ten countries in the world that have witnessed the highest number of data breaches in 2016. In general, that was a record year for data breaches exposing personal data including social security numbers to user account logins and passwords. Corporate data was as well vulnerable to exposures as phishing attacks tricked employees into clicking malware-containing links. Hacker attacks accounted for more than a half of all breaches last year. The 2017 Ponemon Cost of Data Breach Study showed the decline in the overall cost of corporate data breaches, while breaches themselves were larger.

· The average cost for each lost or stolen record in 2017 is $141. In the healthcare sector it is $380, in the financial sector — $245.

· 47% of companies identified the malicious or criminal attacks as the man cause of breaches.

In May 2017, hackers exploited SS7 telco flaw to raid German bank accounts, and O2, a telecommunications provider and mobile phone seller, confirmed that the hack wiped out some German customers bank Accounts. In this case, the notorious SS7 protocol was exploited to reroute the codes that were sent to the customers of German banks for confirming the transfer of funds online. The phishing scam involved stealing personal data and bank account details. The news has sent a chill to other banks and service providers employing SMS codes for verification.

While two-step verification cannot always protect private data, an additional layer of encryption can help. Strong end-to-end encryption means scrambling messages, media and files in a way that only the key owner can decrypt the data and read it.

Shielding critical data with encryption

Now as VIPole is increasing its presence in Germany, it helps companies to comply with these and other regulations for enterprises in Europe. The unified user management console in VIPole Enterprise and VIPole Team allows to restrict permissions, monitor the activities of the users and wipe data remotely if a device is compromised.

There are specific security obligations that firms in Germany must be complied with when they store and manage sensitive customer data. Among other issues, they must:

· Ensure that data is secured against accidents including destruction and loss,

· Ensure that only authorized users can read, copy, alter and remove the data when it is transferred and stored.

· Ensure the opportunity of verifying when and by whom data is accessed, altered or removed.

The recent cases of data breaches in financial and telecom sectors resulted in the growth of demand for secure all-in-one enterprise communication and collaboration platforms. VIPole provides the solutions for shielding critical assets against spying, sabotage and cyber-crime.

Due to the EU legislation governing encryption and secure storage of personal data, this interest among businesses will grow naturally, and fully controlled on-premise and cloud messaging platforms for businesses of all sizes will likely become a standard in the near future. VIPole empowers start-ups, non-profits, law firms and governmental organizations worldwide to deploy independent rich-feature messengers to control workflows and connections and maintain corporate security standards.

VIPole offers end-to-end encrypted messaging and collaboration solutions for teams and enterprises dealing with commercially or personally sensitive information, and individuals wishing to protect themselves from hackers, identity thieves and malware.

More at www.vipole.com