Are Your Corporate Documents Safe?

In today’s business world, employees travel with “business-in-a-pocket” mobile devices and collaboration happens in several time zones and countries at once. The pressure is high for corporations to become mobile, go for the cloud and otherwise raise the risk of information leakage.

Are you one of those executives, IT or business managers suffering sleepless nights, worrying about the security of corporate documents? Never mind the nail-biting experience of complying with government mandates…

Document Collaboration – High Value, High Risk

One of the biggest faults of a corporate intranet becomes glaringly obvious when you look at project and document collaboration. The more you collaborate with outside individuals, the more sensitive documentation must go beyond the company’s firewall or used AS/400 server.

Problem – You can’t keep everything behind the firewall.

Solution – Seamless collaboration, necessary in a competitive world, and a secure environment in which to do it.

Online, Secure Document Control – A Case for the Cloud

Some companies specialize in secure, online workspaces, which provide, among other things:

• 24/7 access using a browser
• Role-based permission systems
• Document tracking, including change notifications
• Administrative control without revealing user data
• Encryption, access control and authentication

In plain speak, your partners can collaborate with you in this space, without risking sensitive documentation to accidental or malicious exposure. For example, you can set a document to be viewed, but “lock it down” so it can’t be copied, forwarded or shared. Think of it as Google Docs for top-secret government agencies.

Depending on the company, these solutions comply with an industry’s specific government-mandated regulations for security and document tracking/management. Audit trails keep track of who’s viewed and changed the document – most helpful when complying with financial data requirements, among other things.

Not All Providers Are Good Providers

Now, don’t just jump on the first online workspace (aka online data room) you see; they aren’t all the same. Some key issues a strong collaboration solution needs to address are:

• Data encryption – it seems simple, yet a few multi-billion dollar companies have had information leaks due to unencrypted, sensitive data. Make sure your chosen provider offers stored, as well as data-in-transit encryption, and provides a separate encryption key per “room”.

• Prevent unauthorized data viewing – administrators will need to watch the systems operations, manage server availability and so on. What they don’t need is the ability to see the users’ confidential documents. Your chosen solution needs to provide clear separation between collaborator and administrative access.

• Two-step authentication – a password can be compromised. A cell phone can be stolen. However, creating a two-step authentication protocol (example: enter password and a verification code is sent to your phone) greatly decreases the chances of your online data room being exposed to unwanted scrutiny.

• Certified data center – not all data centers are created equal. A data center should certified and comply with SAS 70 Type II and ISO 27001. As well, the data center should have its own firewalls, virus protection and so on.

Conclusion

Business is moving faster than ever and corporations are under a lot of pressure to conform in order to survive. You – well, you have to find a solution you can live with. You need “seamless information at the speed of sound” with rocket-proof, airtight, no-holds barred security. A competitive organization has to be able to stretch and use new approaches to stay that way; this includes faster ways of collaborating.

While collaboration is necessary to keep up with ever changing demand, exposing sensitive documentation isn’t. By ensuring the safety of your corporate documents, you gain peace of mind; you have a secure, online workspace for collaboration. Get some sleep, give your fingernails a break, and grab a latte or doughnut along the way to your office to celebrate.

Stacy Gianakura writes for Brainloop, a high-security online collaboration and document protection company.