There are a huge number of file sharing applications out there – Dropbox, SugarSync, Syncplicity, Box, Citrix ShareFile, Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, Egnyte, Oxygen Cloud and so on. All of these solutions help manage content efficiently, share files, synchronize all types of documents across all types of user devices, and support document-centric tasks and the workflow needs of small and large businesses. However, not all solutions are secure.
The most telling case happened in 2012, when hackers managed to get hold of Dropbox employees’ passwords. As a result, a file with users’ email addresses was stolen – the company immediately acknowledged the leak, but concealed its extent. Four years later it turned out that the leak was more serious: a dump containing over 68 million Dropbox users’ accounts with encrypted passwords and email addresses was published online.
Against this background, the demand for secure enterprise collaboration applications grew. Box, Huddle, ShareFile, Syncplicity and Intralinks VIA are named among the most secure SaaS solutions for content exchange and collaboration. However, they can only be trusted to a certain extent – in most cases, companies provide systems which are closed to external audit, and it is impossible to judge whether there are any vulnerabilities before the first news about a hack appears.
In all of the systems presented, files are encrypted, and the owners receive a flexible system of distribution of access rights. In Intralinks VIA and some similar solutions, the administrator can find out at any time which users and which documents have been viewed, as well as delete sent files, files saved on external media and all copies of them. This feature is worth looking into. Perhaps it is even more useful than the unlimited storage access for each account.