Collaboration Security Considerations in a Time of Crisis

There’s an old saying that if you’re not paying for something, then you’re the product being sold.

That was easier for people to understand when the price of your free Hotmail address was being exposed to ads. But today far fewer consumer users really grasp the impact of behavioural data and how that is monetised, even though the expectation nowadays is that things will mostly be free at the point of use — driving similar expectations in enterprise SaaS.

For Unify Square’s VP of Consulting Services, Alan Shen, it reminds him of when the iPhone ate the consumer space a decade ago, and business IT directors had to catch up with changed expectations. “Enterprises were no longer free to say, ‘ that’s not an approved device, use your BlackBerry!’ They had to find a way to cater to that consumer expectation” — and ensure it met required standards for security on the business side.

IT departments playing catch up

When it comes to collaboration platforms and their unprecedented uptake in 2020, Shen sees the same things happening — people picking up tools in the consumer space and bringing them in to work — with predictable consequences. Enterprises need to respond fast.

“One product we’ve rolled out today is a Zoom security reporting feature”, he explained, “To check whether or not their endpoints are properly patched to the right service level, whether they have the right settings to make sure they’re not being” Zoombombed”, or risk having sensitive data leaked.”

To support the global explosion in Zoom uptake, Unify Square are offering customers a 30-day free trial.

But Zoom is not the only platform out there, and not the only manifestation of collaboration threat. Another product popular with their customers is a bespoke Shadow IT Scout: “People are using many different devices to continue their work in an emergency situation — home PCs, home mobile endpoints…”

“Is the data being shared across those unmanaged devices something that enterprises are comfortable with?

“It’s not possible for any IT person to easily figure out where all the shadow IT usage are happening, and where the risks are coming from. You have to have some way of looking at people’s communication patterns, intelligence to identify where the risks are coming from. It’s part of our mission to ensure the success of enterprises as they deploy and manage communications and collaboration solutions within their organisation. If you’re not using software to manage all this, you’re not going to be able to keep up.”

A future of video collaboration

While helping manage current threats, the Unify Square team is also looking to the future

“When people go back to work, there’s going to be a shift around the cultural impact change in use of video, to support the level of video traffic that’s happening today because of COVID-19”, Shen concludes. “So there’s going to be this big spike that has an impact on other business critical services back in the office. We’re working with customers to help them start planning for that now.”

While no-one knows when people will return to office buildings, it’s clear that many aspects of the work will be forever changed — and it’ll be up to the enterprises to respond effectively to those changed needs and expectations, as they respond to the new threats those expectations inevitably create.