Protect Your Data: Simple Steps for Security
With one in two companies experiencing confidential information breaches due to cyberattacks or malicious insider activity, it’s critical to take early action to protect your organisation. One of these measures may be the use of cloud storage or virtual data rooms (VKD, VDR). Consider ways to ensure the security of such spaces.
What Is a Virtual Data Room and Why Is It Needed?
A virtual data room is a space where documents are sorted into folders. All participants have a certain level of access rights to them and can download files, upload them, and share them. This format of space allows you to organise convenient collaboration within the framework of various production business processes.
The use of permanent or temporary cloud storage or the so-called Virtual Data Rooms, or VDR, greatly simplifies the work in business and improves the communication process between employees. According to many studies, such an approach when working with documents already increases the efficiency of the organisation.
How to Secure Virtual Data Rooms?
Each company and growing business should pay special attention to strengthening the security of their virtual storage. After all, the success of all activities will depend on this. It is necessary to ensure the protection of documents and other important information at the highest level. The worst thing that can happen is a total leak and theft of information about upcoming projects, reporting, and other data. The approach must be comprehensive, so we will look at three main provisions for complete data protection in an electronic data room.
The cloud storage itself has to be protected first
Security for cloud infrastructure entails managing identity and access to cloud resources skillfully as well as safeguarding not just the exterior boundary but also communication connections. The market for cloud technology is rapidly expanding. As a result, safeguarding cloud infrastructure will become more important.
Secure the files themselves
You must also secure the files themselves in the online data room, which are kept in the cloud and virtual storage settings. It is important to safeguard the file itself in addition to the standard feature of granting access to read, amend, or administer a document to a particular employee or external counterparty. Different DLP and DRM tools are available here. You may use them to restrict the number of activities and manage document access.
The coronavirus epidemic and rising demand for effective remote work, according to experts, necessitated high levels of data protection and the remote workplace, in addition to software solutions for working with information and storing it. Many services offer different features and tools for complete data protection. To compare different software you can read a review of data rooms here: https://australian-dataroom.net.
Safeguard the paper and its information
It’s vital to keep in mind that DLP solutions won’t be of assistance when it comes to using a phone to take images, such as when a burglar only uses his phone to compromise a private document. A more thorough strategy is required to address this issue.
The most efficient method of data room due diligence appears to be the use of a secure VDR-space along with a distinctive invisible marking of documents (not to be confused with watermarks). A distinctive invisible marking is preserved when photographed. It ensures that, in the event of a leak, it can be determined exactly who committed illegal actions with the document, down to the name.
Usage of Marking
A document’s watermark is frequently visible, but it frequently obstructs reading by partially obscuring the information. Additionally, with an editor like Photoshop, watermarks are simple to get rid of. They are unable to pinpoint the exact source in the case of a leak, among other things. Invisible marking, however, triumphs on all fronts and has the added benefit of having a strong preventative component for a variety of potential information security vulnerabilities that an organisation may encounter.
It is worth considering that the demand for the use of marking technology as such can only be considered emerging: few market players offer such products, and the companies themselves are only looking at such solutions.
If we examine how such marking functions in a secure data room, it becomes clear that everything is very straightforward:
- As soon as a document enters the system, it is automatically marked with indistinct marks based on the steganographic approach;
- Micro-shifts happen when the spacing between words, lines, paragraphs, etc. changes;
- The document’s visual representation stays unchanged, it is impossible to see the mark with the naked eye.
If a document from one of these VDRs were to leak, it would be feasible to inspect the compromised portion by simply uploading it to the system and identifying the source by marking. In general, it is best to use markings rather than watermarks, as this will prevent you from leaking important documents. And the anonymity and security of information in the company is one of the key success factors, since no competitor should learn anything extra, otherwise you can put the whole business under a big blow.
Conclusion: Reliable data protection in virtual rooms
The online data rooms are an effective tool for storing documents and sharing them with internal and external agents. Creating folders, delimiting access rights, and other functional features of VDR allow you to organize comfortable collaboration within the workflow. Be sure to pay great attention to the protection and preservation of documents in your company, as much more money and effort will then be spent to restore the damage that their leak can cause. It is best to make sure that everything is under reliable protection in advance.
However, both the cloud storage itself and the files contained in it need protection, which can only be provided in a complex way: using a protected VDR space together with the invisible marking of documents. The implementation of such a solution in a company will have a preventive effect and identify the source in the event of information leakage.
