Real-Time Collaboration Without Security Risks

Adding collaboration to your applications just isn’t worth it.

At least, that’s probably how you feel about it. If you start looking at the challenges and risks of adding collaboration into your application, it might seem like an easier and safer path to just find a way around it. It isn’t 2020 any longer - is collaboration as imperative as it was when we were all working remotely?

The truth is - collaboration, and especially content collaboration, is as important now as it was just a few years ago. Collaboration increases team productivity and leads to better outcomes for customers and for the business. Content creation and editing are key components of collaboration.

But building your own rich text editor is costly and resource-restrictive, and buying a 3rd party component comes with significant risks. Do you make the choice in favor of collaboration, or do you choose to keep your application and systems safe at the expense of productivity? Do you really have to choose one or the other?

# The Drive for Collaboration and Security in Your Application

The data in our infographic tells a compelling story - one that shows the challenges application teams face when trying to balance the needs of their users with keeping their apps secure.

Collaboration can improve outcomes, accelerate workflows, and support success. Corel’s State of Collaboration Survey reported that 64% of employees lose as much as 3 hours a week as a result of collaboration inefficiencies. Plus, miscommunication and unclear directions are reportedly responsible for 28% of missed deadlines, thanks to errors and other delays.

It’s an especially difficult problem when considering adding content collaboration with a rich text editor (RTE). Even a simple, straightforward rich text editor is a complex engineering problem. Adding in scalable, reliable collaboration amplifies the complexity. It’s a heavy lift to develop a functional RTE with just basic functionality - doing that while adhering to software security standards and reducing risk can be expensive, time consuming, and a resource sink.

There is the option of implementing a third party RTE component, of course. But, you’ll need to choose wisely. As the infographic shows, a third party API can be a security risk. A whopping 98% of organizations have at least one third party vendor that has experienced a data breach, while 95% of respondents to a Salt Security survey experienced security problems with production APIs.

Businesses must carefully consider which rich text editor component they choose to integrate into their applications. It must be one that provides the level of collaboration appropriate for users, but with an eye on the future and scalability. It should fit into modern application architecture patterns, like modularity. The development of the component must be done with an eye toward security. Both enterprises and smaller organizations can’t afford to compromise.

# The Secure Content Collaboration Solution

CKEditor offers unparalleled levels of collaboration - including Real-Time Collaboration - with unmatched and proven security. In fact, CKEditor is the only rich text editor that provides:

• Drop-in asynchronous and real-time collaboration

• SOC2 Type 1 and Type 2 compliance

• End-to-end encryption

• Cloud and self-hosted implementation options (even during the free trial!)

• Role-based access control (RBAC) & Content Security Policy (CSP) support

There is no reason to compromise. CKEditor marries collaboration and security along with an extensive list of other features, like Document Converters, AI Assistant, File Management, and much more.

Try CKEditor for free!

Download a PDF of this infographic.

# The Drive for Collaboration

3 hours - The average time a week wasted by 64% of employees due to collaboration inefficiencies.¹

86% - The percentage of business leaders that attribute workplace failures to lack of collaboration.²

28% - Deadlines missed because of miscommunication and unclear exchanges, leading to delays and errors.³

97% - Employees and employers that believe lack of collaboration undermines workplace success.⁴

43% - IT leaders that believe online collaboration tools pose a security risk.⁵

# The Drive for Security

98% - Percentage of organizations with at least one third-party vendor that has suffered a data breach.⁶

$4.88M - Average cost of a data breach in 2024 - 10% higher than the 2023 average.⁶

95% - Survey respondents who experienced security problems in production APIs.⁷

84% - Codebases that contained at least one open source vulnerability.⁸

# References:

1. State of Collaboration Survey - Corel - https://www.alludo.com/static/all/pdfs/newsroom/data-insights/virtual-collaboration-tools-report/2022-state-of-collaboration-survey-report.pdf
2. How Soft Skills Are Crucial to Your Business - Salesforce - https://www.salesforce.com/ca/blog/how-soft-skills-are-crucial-to-your-business/ 
3. The Importance of Effective Workplace Communication - Key Statistics - Expert Market -  https://www.expertmarket.com/phone-systems/workplace-communication-statistics
4. 86 Percent of Employees Cite Lack of Collaboration for Workplace Failures - Fierce, Inc. -  https://fierceinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/PR___2011_Workplace_Collaboration_Survey___Fierce_Inc__.pdf
5. zight – https://zight.com/blog/collaboration-statistics/
6. 110 of the Latest Data Breach Statistics - Secureframe - https://secureframe.com/blog/data-breach-statistics
7. State of API Security Report 2024 - Salt Security - https://content.salt.security/state-api-report.html
8. 30 SSCS statistics that matter for software security teams - Reversing Labs - https://www.reversinglabs.com/blog/software-supply-chain-security-by-the-numbers-30-key-stats-that-matter