Slack Announces Major Security Updates

This week, Slack made a series of major updates to its team collaboration platform. The company’s new security features, integrations, and certifications allow customers to gain increased visibility and control over their data. Slack’s Enterprise Key Management (EKM) support for Workflow Builder (available now), extends full encryption to workflows, including workflow steps, messages, forms, channel destinations, other forms of data, etc. I’m told by Slack in an email statement.

Slack also announced the ‘Splunk’ App, which is now available. The new app enables users to ‘Ingest activity from Slack’s audit logs API into Splunk so they can visualize or analyze data via pre-built dashboards.” The team collaboration giant also said that a new ‘Minimum app version’ of Slack is now out, which allows admins to choose a ‘specific version of the Slack mobile app’ for users to download and to determine when it goes into effect.

Slack also said it would add a new application management feature, the Microsoft Intune Mobile Application Management (MAM) system, a service set to enable Slack users to keep personal information private and to secure enterprise-wide data when they use their own devices.

“Although admins don’t manage an employee’s device, they need enough access to wipe sensitive data clean if, say, the employee’s device gets lost or stolen”

Later this year, Slack says the feature will become a reality, adding, “Intune will allow users to access corporate data from their mobile devices running on iOS, Android, and Windows operating systems without having the devices being managed by admins.” ‘Information barriers’ is an up-and-coming feature that is also set to solve a fundamental organizational issue; conflicts of interest. Irwin Lazar, VP and Service Director, Nemertes Research, told UC Today that enterprise collaboration leaders ‘view’ encryption and support as necessary business tools, adding, that this is why Slack’s ability to secure enterprise data inside and outside organizations is so critical to those who need it. He continued:

“Slack’s ability to protect enterprise data both inside the enterprise and within federated workspaces gives organizations the ability to ensure the security of their data, as well as to meet regulatory and compliance requirements”

The feature is set to enable admins to restrict the communication between selected users to avoid conflicts of interest or to safeguard important business information. In April 2020, Slack first announced its UK Data residency program, which allowed customers in the UK to choose the region that their data was placed.

Today, that program is generally available, and Slack customers worldwide can today store encryption keys in a specific data region. Secure collab with external organizations, also known as EKM support for Slack Connect is coming soon. “Messages and files sent in channels shared with external organizations will be encryptable using a customer’s encryption keys.” Slack Connect user’s organizations will soon be verifiable. When Slack Connect users communicate with customers, vendors, and partners, a checkmark is set to appear next to the organization’s name, adding an extra level of security for end-user organizations and key stakeholders. The company’s recent updates could hint at the fact that its taking security more seriously, and ready to further take on the likes of Microsoft Teams, its primary rival.