File sharing and Security

Sharing file nowadays is very easy and popular. It doesn’t require people to have the knowledge of computer to do sharing tasks. Currently, iCloud, Google Drive and Dropbox can provide a very simple way to make sharing simply just “click-n-drag” into a shared folder. Your files will be synced onto the cloud right away. However, one of the most issues from sharing files is security. If you are trying to share a confidential document by sending emails in a closed group, you will not want them floating on the Internet back and forth without any kind of protection.

In this post, I will discuss 3 solutions for sharing files securely.

1. Email encryption on both ends is important.

This is not a new technology. However, it is not being used in free email services because the email provider wants to charge money for extra security. As a result, hacker is able to catch your emails and read them easily. With encrypted email, it becomes a very difficult task for hacking an email without the encryption key. With the email encryption on both ends, your files will be on a maximum protection because only the other end can be able to read the files.

Hushmail.com is a popular email provider with encrypted email service. It is very easy to use without installing an email client. Users can either use the hushmail’s web client or download an outlook plug-in.





2. Using a paid email service for better protection.

For business, people likely never believe that any free services are able to protect them. Email appliances like Sophos Email Appliance, Mimecast, Cisoc’s Ironport, PGP might be one of the best choices. They are usually more expensive; however, they are rich features with focusing on data loss prevention.

For example, PGP is widely used in most top corporations. It offers a lot of different tools to protect your data in all operation systems like Windows, Mac, Linux.

3. Sharing file by expert client products is recommended.

As mentioned at the beginning of this post, Dropbox and Google Drive are popular in this area. Instead of using email to share your files, they provide an easy way of accessing your shared folder right on your computer. The data in the shared folder will be put on the cloud, from here only a list of authorized people can access the files anywhere and anytime. At entry level, they are free for everyone with limited storage. However, if you want to share a large amount of data and big files, you will have to pay for those extra features.









Reference:
http://readwrite.com/2011/05/23/how-to-share-files-securely#awesm=~onuAgBOZgMx8QM