Mission

Search

Why Zero Trust Isn’t the Answer, but Full End-to-End Encryption is with Wire CTO, Alan Duric

Play episode

Or listen in your favorite podcast app

Apple Podcasts  /  Google Podcasts Spotify

Let’s be frank. Security and the steps we take to protect ourselves are never top-of-mind. In fact, most users tend to operate under the mindset that bad things happen to other people and companies, never hitting too close to home. Until it does… Maybe it’s an email you click on, or a message that contains sensitive information you pass along to a coworker that ends up in an unsecured inbox. Regardless of the method or point of entry,, bad actors, or hackers will eventually attack if and when they can.

“More and more people go into it with the same logic as when people are buying burglar alarms for [their] home. It usually sells greatly when a home in your neighborhood gets broken into. You hear about it and then say, ‘Maybe I should actually protect myself.’ Whenever something like that happens, then those circles start to resonate with it just unfortunately, they need to get burned in order to learn about it.”

Alan Duric isn’t one of those kinds of people though. Alan is the CTO and COO of Wire, and he lives with three key terms always top of mind: Security, end-to-end encryption and prevention. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Alan discusses some of the leading trends happening in the security space — including addressing the age-old issue of how users should be more proactive and less reactive. Plus, Alan details why email continues to be the most troubling form of communication.

Main Takeaways

  • You are The Weakest Link, Goodbye!: Despite all the forms of cybersecurity, email attacks still remain the weakest link because it is tough to regulate and prevent outside actors from infiltrating a system. Instead, passing sensitive information back and forth through email, consider using encryption-protected messaging services.
  • A Little Proactive and Less Reactive: The time is now for companies to take a hard look at how they are protecting themselves and evaluate all options. With various forms of security, including zero trust, encryption, etc. One of the biggest problems when it comes to security understanding the risk vs reward factor.
  • So, Can you Hack this? One of the leading benefits of full end-to-end encryption is the ability to protect every message and every video conference — sending or receiving — from being attacked. When each individual form of communication is encrypted with its own unique key, it’s as if that message is being protected inside its own individual fortress

—–

For a more in-depth look at this episode, check out the article below.


Let’s be frank. Security and the steps we take to protect ourselves are never top-of-mind. In fact, most users tend to operate under the mindset that bad things happen to other people and companies, never hitting too close to home. Until it does… Maybe it’s an email you click on, or a message that contains sensitive information you pass along to a coworker that ends up in an unsecured inbox. Regardless of the method or point of entry,, bad actors, or hackers will eventually attack if and when they can.

“More and more people go into it with the same logic as when people are buying burglar alarms for [their] home. It usually sells greatly when a home in your neighborhood gets broken into. You hear about it and then say, ‘Maybe I should actually protect myself.’ Whenever something like that happens, then those circles start to resonate with it just unfortunately, they need to get burned in order to learn about it.”

Alan Duric isn’t one of those kinds of people though. Alan is the CTO and COO of Wire, and he lives with three key terms always top of mind: Security, end-to-end encryption and prevention. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Alan discusses some of the leading trends happening in the security space — including addressing the age-old issue of how users should be more proactive and less reactive. Plus, Alan details why email continues to be the most troubling form of communication.

Ignited in 2012 with the purpose of merging communication tools such as messaging, video conferencing, and file sharing all under one roof, complete with full end-to-end encryption services that can be used via the cloud or on-premises, Wire aims to make daily tasks, such as sending an email, safe and secure.

However, not all security measures are secure. What makes Wire unique is that by deploying its solution, every single message that is sent — incoming and outgoing, chat or video conference – uses its own encryption key, meaning that every tiny message is packaged into its own small little fortress that cannot be attacked.  

Over the last eight years, Duric said there has been a rise in technology communication tools, as new forms of communication come online daily. While innovation is great, these tools are providing more and more opportunities for hackers and cybersecurity threats to infiltrate a company’s system. 

Working with companies both large and small in scale, Duric mentioned many of his clients have a concern about the information they share back and forth, and the worry that if those precious bits of sensitive information were to leak, it could put the company in harm’s way.

“Regulators are making sure that companies are not using reckless solutions,” he said. “Almost anyone can take [a company’s] customer base information. And then that information is being sourced and it’s being misused and all sorts of things are happening and all sorts of privacy and security exploits are happening.”

One of the biggest exploits Duric explained is email accounts are often the weakest link of any security chain. Hackers, or bad actors, are now utilizing the A.I. and machine learning to launch more sophisticated attacks, so as these attacks continue to grow in sophistication, organizations need to begin the process of shifting their mindset from a reactionary approach to a more sophisticated one.

“Attempts and the exploits that are happening, are getting super sophisticated,” Duric said. “You can also see the application of artificial intelligence and a number of other fascinating technologies used in order to commit cybercrime. We can predict that within a couple of years the insurance for your company is going to be higher if you are absolutely not doing anything related to cybersecurity or if you are not using tools that have security and privacy by design.”

One of the biggest issues, Duric said, is that people too often don’t take security seriously. In fact, most people and companies open themselves up to risk by deeming the cost of a security product too high. 

So what steps are being taken in the future to prevent cyberattacks attacks? As states like California issue local privacy laws, and GDPR regulations continue to come into focus in Europe, cyberattacks become more sophisticated. Duric says we are approaching a tipping point. But what is the tipping point exactly? Check out the full episode of IT Visionaries to find out.

To hear the entire discussion, tune into IT Visionaries here

Menu

Episode 236