- BlackBerry Survey Finds 98% of Government and Infrastructure Security Leaders Rely on Foreign-Hosted Consumer Messaging Apps
- 83% use WhatsApp for sensitive discussions despite critical gaps in encryption skills
- Report warns that encryption does not protect metadata, impersonation or compromised devices; highlights an urgent need for superior, reliable communications infrastructure
Government and infrastructure workers fundamentally misunderstand the security of the communication apps they use, placing their organizations, the data and information that flows through them, at great risk. This is according to The State of Secure Communications 2026, a study by BlackBerry Secure Communications.
Surveying 700 security decision makers across governments and critical infrastructure in the US, UK, Canada and Singapore, the researchers found that virtually all (98%) rely on foreign-hosted platforms that are not built for confidential communications or high-security environments.
In fact, more than eight in ten (83%) use WhatsApp for sensitive discussions in their organizations.
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Misconceptions about encryption
To make matters worse, nearly all (88%) security leaders are confident that their current messaging setup is secure. This trust, BlackBerry discovered, is based on a “fundamental misreading” of what these platforms actually protect.
“The report reveals critical gaps in encryption skills among the very managers responsible for protecting communications,” it said.
With that in mind, the report says more than half (52%) believe encryption protects metadata such as location data, IP addresses and communication patterns. Just under half (47%) believe encryption prevents impersonation, deepfake or spoofing attacks, and 41% assume communications remain secure even after a device has been compromised.
“Consumer messaging apps were never designed to handle sensitive communications, protect privacy, or meet the demands of high-security environments,” explained Christine Gadsby, Chief Security Advisor, BlackBerry Secure Communications.
“They rely on phone numbers, not verified identities — and encryption protects the channel, not who’s on it. That gap is already being exploited, as the latest intelligence alerts show, and governments and critical infrastructure organizations are responding by moving toward communications infrastructure they own and trust.”
Ownership and control of the infrastructure behind sensitive communications emerges as a “critical blind spot”, Blackberry said, stressing that it “exposes gaps” in data sovereignty. Still, more than half (55%) of respondents said they prioritize sovereign control.
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