Security is more critical than ever before. With the ever-growing increase of organizational digital assets, it’s probable that there’s also an increase in this asset management becoming a potential security vulnerability – particularly when it’s shared with external parties.
“40 percent of security breaches are now indirect, as threat actors target the weak links in the supply chain or business ecosystem.”
- Accenture’s Third Annual State of Cyber Resilience Report, 2020.
Imagine this: an employee shares a Word document with a client for their perusal. The client updates it with new information for your records. However, unbeknownst to your client, a malicious script has been injected into the document by a threat actor that’s hidden on their systems. Upon opening the document again, the script executes on your side and starts wreaking havoc on your systems. It’s a scary concept but played out more commonly than you think.
With security breaches now increasingly coming from external parties – like your clients! – you need to do as much as you can to lock down each entry point to your systems and data assets. This applies to file sharing or document sharing, even if you think it’s as innocuous as a read-only PDF sent to you via email.
You need a file sharing solution that locks down security.
Your company files are your IP
Whether it’s your company’s employee database, an initial client proposal, or a CAD asset for delivery, any files that aren’t widely available to the general public should be closely guarded IP.
There are various strategies to put into place to protect company IP and sensitive data, including internal policies and employee theft measures, data breach obligations, and cybersecurity practices.
The technique we focus on today is around secure file sharing, and in particular, user access to files when it involves external parties.
There are levels of security applied to files; that HR database we mentioned will be classified as highly sensitive data for internal use and for elevated users only. On the other hand, the initial client proposal and CAD asset may be available to a whole internal team as well as select external people.
Already have your own private cloud?
If you already have your own private cloud, or internal servers that you use for file management, there comes the issue of how to share documents and other assets externally with trusted parties.
When you send files, do you:
- Send a copy for the recipient to keep? That’s not a great idea if it contains company IP!
- Use a public cloud provider for externally shared documents? It’s tricky to implement best security practices and keep the same versions of assets internally and externally with this workaround.
Is there a way for external parties to access internal files without compromising your security? We’ll get to that.
The external reader problem
While it’s easy enough to keep files within your private systems secure by adding security measures at the network, device, and user level, it’s a little more tricky to perform this at an external reader level.
When you send files over email, the client’s system may be compromised, and then attackers have access to this newly downloaded file. Not the kind of document sharing you intended.
When you share large assets with big file sizes, or entire folders, via public cloud services like DropBox, while you have greater permission checks, you have no idea whether the reader account is compromised.
Instead, you want to create a secure environment within your current private cloud that allows real-time external client access – so they can only look over your file within your controlled walled garden.
Want your own secure file sharing solution within your own cloud?
How do you create a walled garden where you control all security measures over your files?
We’re happy to say that is one of the core components of CentricMinds. We realize that organizations have their own internal file systems and file management solutions that make secure file sharing difficult.
That’s why we created mechanisms within CentricMinds that allow you to share specific files, folders, workflows, tasks, and approvals with external users. They’re able to access their own walled garden within your organization where they are presented with what’s relevant to them. Our file sharing solution is built with the extra security features required to address the needs of businesses now and in the future.
CentricMinds is like having your very own Dropbox service in your own private cloud
Instead of storing your files in public cloud services, users have access to a Dropbox-like service that operates from your private cloud.
Clients can access file structures and individual files in your systems in line with only the documents and assets that you want them to access.
CentricMinds provides native integration with your preferred work tools
Whether you’re using Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, now you can connect with these environments and manage files securely in your own private cloud. We integrate directly with these environments, alongside user authentication services like Microsoft Active Directory. Work with the tools that you and your clients use every day.
Create a CentricMinds client portal and invite your clients to access their content securely from your own private cloud
By creating a secure client portal with CentricMinds, you’re able to finitely control access, security, and permissions at the client, user, and system levels. There are options to add extra external user controls like strict read-only permissions and multi-factor authentication.
By treating client accounts like an extension of internal user accounts, but with tighter security controls in place, you’re able to eliminate most of the risk with compromising your company IP. You don’t want to treat your externally shared files as assets that may become widely available, so lock them down to your preferred degree of security.
Ready to implement best-practice file security when sharing with clients?
Get a fortified file sharing service that sits on top of your current internal file structures, providing secure, easy-to-use access for your clients. Let us walk you through how CentricMinds gives you ultimate control of what you share with clients with advanced security features in file management and a comprehensive Intranet Software platform for your organization.
We’ll show you how you can present secure views of your underlying data, all while avoiding any upline compromise from external threat actors. Choose us for your security best practices when it comes to file sharing. Reach us to us now for a product demo.
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