Concerns on File Sharing in the Office Setting and Their Solutions
It wasn’t too long ago when you needed a thumb drive to move or copy large files from one computer to another. Imagine the motions involved in the data transfer and the potential risk of losing the drive or the file getting corrupted. That’s a minor issue now that almost all files are stored in the cloud and accessible whenever, wherever.
This ease with the transfer and management of files is a blessing for businesses that are based nowhere and operate anywhere. People can collaborate, work together, and achieve efficiency in their day-to-day tasks. However, with everything done online, the risk of a security breach is always looming. It’s not just the confidentiality of data that is at stake; the workflow will suffer for lack of organization.
If you own a business, it’s critical to identify loopholes in how your company handles, stores, and manages files and the solutions to resolve or mitigate each of these vulnerable spots.
The following are the solutions for the concern of file sharing in the office.
Table of Contents
Challenge 1: Cyberattacks Can Come from Within
Solution: Educate Your Employees
Do you know that 90 percent of security incidents in organizations occur because of employees?
That’s according to an antivirus-product provider that reveals one in five serious data breaches involves careless or uninformed employees.
The workers being the first line of defense are seen as targets of social-engineering attacks to get into the company’s data.
Train your employees about your File sharing system. Keep everyone updated on tools being used by hackers to infiltrate organizations. Instill in employees’ responsibility and accountability over sharing data and information about the company online and offline.
Essential yet safe internet habits like posting information on social media are a huge boost to your campaign to keep your company’s digital assets away from prying eyes.
Challenge 2: Sharing the Files Themselves
Solution: Set Permissions
In the case of Google Docs, a link is all you need to send files and folders within the organization. But do you keep track of where the document ends up?
Set permissions whenever you share a virtual document, sticking only to those people within the organization and controlling what they can do with the document. You will be notified when someone outside the company wants access to the file. You can also check the viewing activity for people who have seen the document.
Challenge 3: Keeping Track of Changes
Solution: Stay on Top with Version Control
One downside to collaborating online is it’s difficult to keep track of changes made. Some documents have version history, but they are often limited or incomplete. People may be saving their versions of a document, and the uploaded one on the project management board is just among the many.
If you have projects involving web development, you can utilize version control to see, merge, and manage changes. Every revision has a timestamp and an author, as in the case of this code hosting platform. Each project also has a repository that you or anyone involved in the project can jump into to find the latest version.
Challenge 4: Rounding Up Files
Solution: Implement a Document-Management System
Imagine an office with ten people, and each of them saves their files on their computers. If you need the document, you may have to ask the person directly to send the file or log in to the PC to retrieve the file. Printing physical copies of every report is not a solution, along with buying more filing cabinets.
It’s a paperless world, and you need a document management system that lets you store, organize, and index documents in the workplace. This virtual cabinet can be a file directory in the computer server for internal access only. You can also look into document-management system software that provides an integrated platform for your digital files and data.
The Internet of Files
The internet is changing how people work, reducing the usual time it would have taken to accomplish one task. To expand your network’s connectivity, consider an Ethernet switch. And also, it is a key equipment to a wired setup by connecting multiple computers through Ethernet cables. And also managing traffic in and out of the network.
Indeed, doing things the digital way has brought out unique challenges in the form of effectively and securely handling files. It is only right that the office internet connection and your document-management processes have to be counted on for the daily hustle.
