File-sharing is essential to the success of many businesses and law firms. Consistent technological advancements have made file-sharing easy and secure. Although malpractices continue to arise, there are plenty of practices to keep your sensitive information private. Don’t let your system fall vulnerable to malicious attacks. Here are 7 best practices for sharing files securely that you can adopt for your firm.
Make use of VPNs
With the heightened trend of flexible working, employees are no longer limited to working in the office. However, this comes with the increased use of insecure public networks when employees decide to work from public places. While you can’t control where your remote workers decide to work from, you can sensitize the need to connect to such networks through a VPN.
A VPN creates a safe tunnel for data to pass through when being transferred on the internet. It makes it difficult for hackers to access what is being transferred. Also, a VPN comes in handy when there is a need to send large videos or any other large file. A VPN, such as NordVPN can hide the file size from your internet service provider, making it possible to send them. (Check this NordVPN Review out, if you’d like to further consider this VPN provider.)
Invest in a file-sharing solution
A file sharing solution allows a secure platform to store files securely and makes it possible to access these files from anywhere. Of course, this eliminates the need to share files back and forth.
You can set permissions for people who are allowed to access these files. The best part is that you have control over these permissions, and you are notified of any user activity. This makes it easy to control the number of people who can access and make changes to the files. The information stays encrypted, adding a layer of security to it.
Limit the use of USBs
USBs are very popular when it comes to sending large files from one location to another. However, USBs are only secure if you don’t lose them. Think about it, how many USBs have you come across lying around in your neighborhood? That’s how easy it is to lose one.
The unfortunate thing is that you have no idea where the USB will land if it happens to get lost. If a malicious person gets it, they will have access to all of your information.
Try using online transfer solutions like MASSIVE or WeTransfer, for practical and secure sending of large files. These interfaces are safer than USBs, given that they only require an internet connection through which you can easily download and upload files for transfer.
Create strong passwords
We have talked about using a file-sharing solution that allows you to use password protection. The truth is that you can’t count your data secure if you are using simple passwords that are easy to guess. Make it difficult for other people to access your files by using strong passwords. You can use a combination of numbers, symbols, upper and lower cases. Make it long enough for extra security.
Also, use multi-factor authentication to make sure only the right people access the files. Use something that is only possessed by the user such as a text to their mobile phone.
Train your team on secure file sharing
With busy schedules and the overwhelming pressure to deliver, it can be easy to overlook practices for secure file sharing. However, such mistakes can be costly. To make sure that such events never happen, you need to educate your team on secure file sharing. Let them have a clear understanding of the risks involved if the information is mishandled. You can classify the data handled in your organization and explain the levels of security each class needs.
In addition, you need to make sure that the whole team is well trained in using the adopted file sharing solution. Failure to do so, your employees may fall back on relying on their knowledge, which sometimes may not align with the organization’s secure file sharing policy.
Make Use of Secure Cloud Providers
Using the cloud is a fairly simple and easy way for sharing files among your team members. All you need is a professional provider. The good thing about these platforms such as Google Drive and Dropbox is that they are free for a certain amount of storage usage. Then, of course, there are some other packages from which you can choose depending on how large your team is. These platforms allow you to also share heavy files securely and in a short period.
Use Archive File Format
Zip files can be used for multiple things, however, they are a great tool for securely sharing large files. They have features such as file compression, encryption, split archives, and many more depending on your need. You simply gather documents in a folder and then easily transport that folder into any other location on a computer or other computer.
It’s amazing just how much data an organization passes across teams, clients, suppliers, and other stakeholders in a day. If you think about it, the damage that can sprout from mishandling such amounts of data is hard to fathom. In that case, secure file sharing is an aspect of the business that must be handled with the weight it deserves.
