How to Secure Your File-Sharing Practices for Improved Operations

Collaboration is as important as ever, if not more so, to businesses of any size… and with so much work today being done digitally, this collaboration needs to be reliable. Add in the fact that so many people work remotely as often as they do, and it should be clear that all businesses need a means of securely collaborating as part of their successful operations.

In light of this, let’s discuss a few file-sharing best practices so that your business can embrace collaboration as securely as possible.

Selecting a Means of Sharing Files

You’ll need a reliable, and reliably secure, way to share files throughout your organization. For this, the cloud provides many options through Software-as-a-Service offerings, which deliver not only the files that a workforce needs securely but also enable that workforce to collaborate via these files, whether they’re all in the same office or dispersed amongst their homes.

In addition to utilizing a secure cloud platform, it is always recommended that any employees use a Virtual Private Network (or VPN) if they ever need to connect to the business’ internal network and its resources. Unfortunately, there is always the chance that an external, unmonitored connection could be harboring threats. Using a VPN can help keep the information that a team member accesses from the business’ network secure while in transit between the office to their remote workstation.

Keep Your Local Files Secure

The first step is to use a unique, complex password for each account, storing them in a password manager for secure convenience. With dozens of passwords to keep track of, the average user needs the assistance of a password manager to handle them all.

Multifactor authentication measures should also be deployed. While it is always a good idea to make your passwords as secure as possible, utilizing multifactor authentication whenever it is available is always a good strategy—especially if someone is trying to access a file from outside the business’ network.

Encrypt files while being stored and while being accessed. A very effective way to protect your files is to apply encryption to them, meaning they are scrambled beyond recognition unless the viewer has the encryption key.

Manage access privileges to prevent unauthorized viewing of files. Not everyone needs access to everything. In fact, there’s an argument to be made that nobody should have access to all files. Take the time to review who has the permissions to access what, and remove any access that is not called for.

Store Your Data Mindfully

Put an expiration date on any shared links. When a file or folder is to be shared, it is important that access to that data is made temporary… especially when shared outside your organization. This is one of the best reasons to share a link to your data rather than copying it and distributing it.

Schedule how long files are retained. The amount of time you should keep your information will vary depending on how important a file is (or isn’t). If a file is genuinely no longer necessary, consider removing it to minimize the damage a breach would cause. Ensure no regulations or legal requirements state that certain data can’t be disposed of before removing it.

We are here to help you maintain the security of your files and the data they contain.

Reach out to us to learn more about how we can help by giving us a call at (804) 264-9339.