Webex customers have more control of their privacy and security

At Webex, we are committed to providing flexible options that allow organizations to achieve their security, privacy, and compliance goals – from anywhere, with ease. We want customers to know there are no more blockers when it comes to embracing cloud collaboration! When it comes to protecting your users’ and organization’s data, Webex has you covered with the most extensive security options in the industry.

This month we are announcing the expansion of data centers in Canada giving organizations more control over where their data resides. In addition, all customers can manage their own encryption keys in the cloud providing stronger controls when it comes to organizational data governance. Webex administrators can also restrict users from spaces and meetings where sensitive information may be located.

These new capabilities are especially relevant for customers in regulated industries, such as those in government, healthcare, and financial services, in addition to law firms, who may want more choice when it comes to data confidentiality and privacy.

The following will be available by Summer.

New data centers in Canada expand privacy options

According to Cisco’s recent data privacy benchmark study, 92 percent of security professionals indicate that keeping their data within their country or region is important to their organization, and data residency is needed to safeguard personal data.

As a Canadian born and raised in Vancouver, I am thrilled to announce we have two new data centers located in Toronto and Montreal that will expand privacy options and help support our customers with sensitivity to data residency, such as those in British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and Quebec, as well as those in the healthcare and financial sectors!

The data centers will house Webex Meetings and associated customer data – including user-generated content, such as recordings and files, and troubleshooting data. They complement existing Webex Calling data centers in Canada, providing a comprehensive in-country collaboration solution that continues to protect users, content, applications, and devices using a variety of stringent internal measures

Bring your own key to the cloud (BYOK) provides more control over data

Webex uses a variety of controls to protect data, including Zero Trust end-to-end encryption. Now, when it comes to cloud collaboration, customers do not have to leave it to us. Organizations with a heightened need for data confidentiality – such as governments needing to protect trade secrets or law firms with attorney-client privledge – may want to manage their encryption keys so they can control who has access to them and who can use them to decrypt the content.

For these customers, we offer an uncomplicated way to set up and manage their keys in the cloud through our BYOK capability. The keys can be used with Webex Messaging, including messages, files and whiteboarding, as well as Webex Meetings content, including recordings, transcripts and calling (voicemail). By bringing their own key, customers retain full control of their collaboration content in the cloud.

This offering complements Webex’s current on-premises key management solution, known as Hybrid Data Security (HDS), which allows customers to deploy the entire key management system in their own data centers. BYOK to the cloud offers many of the same benefits as our on-premises key management solution, but has lower administrative costs, offering a straightforward way to take full control over managing the confidentiality of collaboration data.

New settings in Control Hub offer admins granular security & compliance controls

Protecting data leakage from sources within the organization is just as important as protecting data from external threats. That is why Webex allows you to define controls around information and users that reflect your policies, allowing you to establish who can collaborate with who, what can be shared and what happens if a violation occurs.

Meetings

With settings templates in Control Hub, admins can easily set restrictions for users when it comes to joining internal and external meetings. For example, a bank that needs to restrict users who are regulated can prohibit chat, screen sharing or file transfers when those users join an external meeting. Policies can be set across the organization or group, or for specific users.

Spaces

Webex allows admins to control what types of files can be shared in spaces by external participants, enabling document sharing, for example, and prohibiting other types of file sharing to prevent malware or phishing attempts often caused by downloads. (available now)

Devices

Additionally, Webex settings allow admins to set policies for devices, preventing users from joining meetings from personal devices and locking company devices to allow only authenticated users to join meetings from the device – for meetings inside or outside the organization. This allows organizations to require regulated users to sign-in before joining a meeting on the company devices that could contain sensitive information.

Your goals are our goals

Whether you are focused on achieving new goals related to data localization, enhanced control over data access, or regulatory compliance, I am confident that with these and the dozens of new capabilities we launch every quarter, Webex can help.

For more information about how Webex fosters trust through our product, principles, and commitment, get in touch!

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