Mattermost CEO Ian Tien on Mission-Critical Collaboration for Cybersecurity

The Need for Mission-Critical Communication

• ⚡ Mission-critical situations require communication systems that function even when power or internet is out, as outages or breaches have cascading societal effects.
• ⚠️ Traditional SaaS and international collaboration tools can be efficient but pose risks when they experience outages, impacting downstream systems and critical infrastructure.
• 💡 Examples like the CrowdStrike outage highlight how failures in interconnected systems can disrupt essential services like airlines and communications.

Real-World Application in Critical Infrastructure

• 🔌 In sectors like energy, frontline workers and management need real-time updates during outages, which cannot be reliably provided by systems dependent on the very grid that is failing.
• 🚨 Critical infrastructure requires separate, often on-premise or partner-managed contingency systems to ensure operational continuity during primary system failures or breaches.
• 🗺️ Events like the recent power outage in Spain and Portugal demonstrate the widespread downstream effects on telecommunications and travel, underscoring the need for resilient communication.

Overcoming Collaboration Blind Spots

• 🧠 A common misconception is the lack of strategic foresight until an emergency occurs, leading to reliance on insecure consumer tools like WhatsApp during security incidents.
• 🔒 Using unauthorized platforms for incident response creates security and compliance risks, as sensitive data can be lost or become unmanaged when employees leave the organization.
• 🛠️ Organizations often realize the need for secondary, emergency communication systems only after experiencing a primary system compromise, learning from these