Many businesses take pains to ensure that company emails stay private and secure, but CIOs and IT managers often overlook another popular form of communication: text messages.
A typical SMS is subject not only to hacker interception, but also basic theft: an inbound text remains on a user's smartphone until he or she deletes it. Likewise, it stays on the carrier's servers for who knows how long.
If your business trades in sensitive information—documents, photos, private client data, etc.—it might make sense to adopt a more secure system.
TigerTextPro offers businesses secure real-time messaging. It's available for Android, BlackBerry, and iOS, but you can also deploy it on Windows and Mac machines.
Though ostensibly for the healthcare and legal industries, which rely on the kind of HIPAA and SOX compliance TigerText offers, this app would prove useful for any company that wants secure comunication for its employees.
TigerText works much like any messaging app, with a built-in company directory, group messaging capabilities, file and photo sharing, and real-time archiving for companies that need it. There's even a remote-wipe option.
Where it differs from other apps is letting the sender decide when a message should get deleted from the recipient's phone and TigerText's servers—after a specific elapsed time, for example, or 60 seconds after being opened and read. ("This message will now self-destruct!") The sender can also request delivery and read notifications.
If you want to see TigerText in action, there's a brief promo video below. In the meantime, you'll need to contact the company directly for pricing information, which varies based on the number of users.
You can also test-drive the free, consumer-oriented version of TigerText just to get a feel for how it operates, and decide if the enterprise edition is worth pursuing. It mimics most of the functionality of the Pro product, but lacks the administrative controls (corporate directory, remote wipe, Active Directory sync, etc.) and some other features.
Of course, if you've found a better way to exchange secure, private messages, tell me about it in the comments.
For more than 20 years, Rick Broida has written about all manner of technology, from Amigas to business servers to PalmPilots. His credits include dozens of books, blogs, and magazines. He sleeps with an iPad under his pillow.
