Just days after announcing the upcoming end to the consumer version of the encrypted communication app Wickr, AWS has announced AWS Wickr, a new enterprise communications service with end-to-end encryption.
According to the company, AWS Wickr is designed to help organizations comply with regulatory requirements like e-discovery, legal hold and FOIA requests. The app uses end-to-end encryption to protect messages, files, voice and video calls.
The company announced the preview of AWS Wickr back in July, and announced the general availability of its new enterprise-grade communication app during its re:Ignite conference this week.
AWS Wickr also comes with “flexible” administrative controls that enable IT to manage the communication channels and retain information to meet regulatory requirements when required.
Wickr administration is now integrated and available in the AWS Management Console, allowing IT to use AWS Identity and Access Management tools to govern access to Wickr. It is also integrated with AWS Cloud Development Kit and Amazon CloudWatch for monitoring, the company says in a blog.
Information is stored on the servers the organization chooses and stay entirely under their control, AWS says. Administrators can selectively retain information in a secure data store they manage, and only they will have the keys to decrypt conversations or documents. According to AWS, this is a feature designed for public sector organizations.
The Wickr client application is available for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS devices. Once downloaded, users can create chat rooms or send messages to individual recipients.
To start, Wickr will be available in the U.S. East AWS Region, and will be free for individuals and teams of up to 30 users for the first three months. For organizations with more than 30 users, the standard plan starts at $5 per user per month. A premium plan that adds features and retention capabilities such as granular admin controls, client-side data expiration timer of up to one year, data retention and e-discovery starts at $15 per user per month.
Leave a Reply