Efficient and Secure File Sharing a Must for Today’s Businesses

Today’s business needs to be able to share files and data securely and efficiently. This process may seem straightforward, but there are a lot of options that the business owner or manager needs to understand. In today’s blog, we look at some steps that will help you create a strong and secure file-sharing system.

Do a Preliminary Assessment

Start by understanding your business' specific file-sharing requirements. It’s important to understand what type of data is typically shared and how much of it is on the move. This step can help you not only determine how your organization’s data is moved but also how your employees collaborate on it. Collaboration largely depends on these efficient data movements, so understanding the basics of how they share and receive data is a big step to building a file-sharing strategy that works for your business.

Choose a Solution That Fits Your Needs

You will want to select a file-sharing platform that aligns with your business needs. You have to determine if the data you have is able to be saved in the cloud or if you need to set up on-premises infrastructure to house the data. If the latter is what you choose, you need to look for features such as end-to-end encryption, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and secure link sharing. You will also need to ensure the solution allows you to easily manage user permissions and roles, making sure that only authorized personnel can access sensitive files.

Access Control

You’ll want to set up user profiles that allow you to assign file access based on roles within the company. You’ll want to provide employees with the minimum level of access they need to perform their tasks, but also ward against providing more access to data they don’t need. This strategy just reduces risk of data exposure and unauthorized access. Finally, you want to have a comprehensive system of logs of all access and file-sharing activities, which can be easily reviewed.

Maintaining Security

Data security is extremely important and to this end you will want to implement encryption tools to keep data at rest and in transit secured. You’ll need to have reliable password protection for shared files and links, particularly when sharing files outside the organization, and it’s also a good idea to implement technology that allows you to monitor and protect data from being shared that has no business being shared. 

Employee Training

There are several ways to train your employees so that organizational file sharing doesn’t turn problematic. One of the best ways is to provide security training. That means teaching them what you expect of their data handling, the importance of data protection methods (such as creating and storing strong passwords and other measures), and how to ensure that sensitive information is handled properly. 

Building a secure and efficient file-sharing system for a small business requires careful planning and the right combination of technology and practices. By choosing the right solution and having a reliable strategy for handling data, you can create a file-sharing environment that supports your business while ensuring that data isn’t stolen or lost. 

If you would like some help choosing and setting up a file sharing system that supports your business and your employees’ collaboration, give our IT professionals a call today at (804) 264-9339.