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Will The Enterprise Ever Take SMS Seriously?

While text messages are a simple and direct method to communicate, they can be a way to skirt official, IT-monitored channels. And a potentially unsafe one, to boot. Vodafone is offering its enterprise customers a chance to take back a small degree of control.

Do enterprises really pay enough attention to the SMS, or text messages, sent by their employees? None of the companies I have worked for even addressed SMS messages, let alone created rules for them. It is all too easy to send corporate information via SMS to unsecured handsets of customers or colleagues. Enterprises should be concerned about that, and take steps to avoid any legal entanglements, especially where privacy and financial issues are concerned.

Through a new deal with Broca Communications, Vodafone enterprise customers will have the opportunity to do just that by encrypting SMS messages sent by their employees. It may not prevent the employees from sending SMS messages in the first place, but at least it provides sensitive information (you know, like financial data) with a nice protective coating as it travels through the air.

Broca's Secure Advanced Message Service (SAMS) is technology that was first announced back in March. It works by using a form-based SMS messaging format. Message formats can be designed via an API, allowing customers to check off boxes to buy goods or services. Customers of the service register a PIN or password, which allows sensitive details, such as credit card data, to be communicated with the knowledge that the customer has authenticated themselves. Broca calls the technology working behind the scenes "cyclical encryption" and says it cannot be derived from the handset or over the air. The drop down menu systems are based on Java and work with most handsets.

Broca pitches it as a way for network operators to make some extra cash by offering this service to enterprise customers. Securing all forms of corporate communications certainly has value. The issue is, do enterprises consider SMS to be a legit form of communications?

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