Protecting a company’s information and communications system is so important. This task has become even more challenging with the exponential growth in the number of cyberattacks over recent years and the development of new ways of working. For small businesses, this can be even tougher. In fact, stats show 23% of SMBs use no device security, 32% rely only on free solutions 1 and 60% of cyber crime overall targeted at small businesses.2
Faced with these challenges and the high volume of related standards and regulations, how can you be sure that your communications system is sufficiently secure? We pose this question to Peter Hughes, AVP, Australia Country Manager, RingCentral, in the second episode of our video series.
Threats to communications security are on the rise
The evolution of the modern workplace means your employees need to be able to work from wherever, using various means of communication, and on any device. As a small business, you may be using several different platforms and staff may be required to use their personal devices, both of which increase the risk of security breaches within your communications system.
This can be seen particularly with the uptake in employees working from home, which has become more common following the pandemic.
If you’re a small business leader, managing security on top of everything else certainly isn’t easy. So how can the cloud help?
The benefits of the cloud when it comes to security
One of the advantages of the cloud is the pooling of infrastructures and resources. This enhances security, drawing on best practices that protect data. Moreover, the application of security patches is carried out systematically and immediately, which is not always the case with on-premises systems. Tasks like these are time-consuming, tedious and require human intervention. Due to a lack of time and resources, especially in smaller businesses, companies are not always in a position to react quickly in this respect. With a cloud-based unified communications system (or UCaaS, Unified Communications as a Service), regular system upgrades to maintain the highest level of security are undertaken by your provider.
UCaaS systems are newer and more modern than systems like on-premises PBX. They offer advanced features and are extremely simple to use. With RingCentral, for example, you can easily activate end-to-end encryption for your messages at any point if you find yourself discussing confidential topics.
Complying with current standards
When it comes to data privacy, there are lots of regulations that need to be complied with. Information about your customers and your employees may pass through your communications system, so you need to ensure that your system is compliant in every country in which you have a presence.
RingCentral is based on a secure cloud platform with a large range of security and compliance certifications, including SOC 2 and SOC 3 certifications; ISO 27001 and ISO 27017-18; HITRUST certification; and HIPAA and GDPR compliance – to name just the key ones. We have even received the C5 certification from the German Government – a strict standard that is becoming the European benchmark for cloud security.
Ensuring an exceptional level of service
In terms of communications, the availability of your system is another important factor to take into consideration when assessing reliability. With RingCentral, we guarantee an unrivaled availability of 99.999%! This means your system will only be unavailable for a maximum of six minutes per year. This guarantee has a more than positive financial impact on companies’ ROI – Gartner estimates the average cost for system downtime to be $8,774 per minute (excl. tax).
And that was the second episode from our “How to optimise your business communications” video series.
Don’t miss the next episodes!
- Episode #3: How to optimise team collaboration and productivity with unified communications and AI
- Episode #4: How to integrate your communications system to optimise your business workflows
- Episode #5: How to manage your communications platform more effectively with advanced analytics
2 https://www.csoonline.com/article/575267/how-the-australian-federal-government-will-invest-in-cybersecurity.html
Originally published 28 Feb, 2024
