The Importance of a Document Security System
Every year, organizations lose millions when documents with confidential data fall into the wrong hands. From physical document loss to digital hacking, human error and malicious insiders create huge threats.
Document security systems help protect against these threats by offering features like: preventing editing (by making files view-only), controlling who can copy and paste, tracking when a file is accessed, and more. Superior technology will also include authentication and nonrepudiation.
Encryption
Encryption is one of the most fundamental components to a document security system. File encryption ensures that data can’t be accessed or read even if it ends up in the wrong hands. It can also prevent sensitive information from being transmitted over unsecure networks.
Watermarking is another powerful document security feature that helps to deter unauthorized copying or distribution by imprinting imperceptible markings on documents. These can include logos, labels, and more to signal ownership and integrity.
Another feature to look for is a password protection option. This is a critical layer of document security that can be used to limit user access and track who has seen the document. It can also be combined with features like document expiry or self-destruction, which help to reduce risk by making certain files inactive after a set period of time.
Data Loss Prevention
Data loss prevention is an important aspect of overall information security. It helps organizations identify and protect sensitive data across their digital environments, including email, cloud storage applications and collaboration tools, from accidental or malicious transfer to external destinations.
The first step in DLP is identifying which data is critical, and that starts with an organization’s definition of “sensitive.” After that, companies can customize their DLP solution to scan all file-based content (e.g., on laptops or desktops) for those critical data points and prevent them from leaving the network via email or being copied to USB drives.
Advanced DLP solutions can also provide user prompting to alert employees when they are about to engage in risky activity, such as attempting to send a confidential file via email or copying it to an outside location. This can help to reduce the incidence of data leaks by insiders and improve compliance with regulatory requirements. DLP also works with other security systems, like intrusion detection systems (IDS) and threat protection systems (IPS), to identify suspicious movement of data and alert security staff.
Confidentiality
Document security systems protect the integrity of documents. This means ensuring that only authorized users can see or modify the content of a document. This is done through a variety of mechanisms including encryption, watermarking, and audit trails.
It is important for businesses to educate employees about the importance of document security. This can be done through a variety of methods, including interactive workshops and webinars. In addition, many document security tools offer employee training modules to help workers understand how they can better secure their work.
A document security system can also prevent unauthorized sharing of documents by locking access to specific devices or locations. This allows companies to keep control of their data even when it is being used outside the office, on a BYOD device for example. Dynamic watermarking is another way to ensure that only the original creator of the document can make changes or print a copy. This can be combined with other controls such as document expiry to control how long a document is available for.
Access Control
Whether stored in paper form or digitally, documents are at risk from theft, fire, and natural disasters. And if digital document security fails, confidential information could be compromised. Especially in the age of remote work and bring your own device (BYOD) policies, it is vital to have an effective document security system.
In addition to encryption and data loss prevention, access control is a critical element of a robust document security system. The right access management tools allow you to limit access to a file by permission and authentication. You can also prevent the copy-paste function and block screen grabbing to keep your information from being shared or modified.
Using PDF user roles and document tracking, you can also see who has opened, viewed, printed, or downloaded your files, even after they have been accessed. This helps prevent employees from accidentally deleting or sharing sensitive information without your knowledge. Document expiry and self-destruct features are other ways to protect files from unauthorized use and distribution.