File sharing is one of the most critical procedures of sensitive data sharing. It provides a wide range of benefits to users. The most obvious benefit is the reduced time that needs to be spent while entering or exiting the system. However, the security game is not the only advantage that comes with it. The efficiency of the entire system is also improved immensely by adopting this scheme.
To get started with the process of file sharing, you have to first consider the five Safes or Protection that the system offers. These are Local Area Network, Shared, Public Internet Access, Computer Aided Enterprise Application (CAA) and the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB). Each of these has their own respective strengths and weaknesses. You should understand them and accordingly plan your approach. The following is the and’s guide to help you understand the differences and the benefits associated with each of the five Safes.
LANS – This is considered the least secure of all the Safes available on the market. The major disadvantage of LANS is that the network is quite easy to attack and the success of any attack is quite easy. The guide for sensitive data sharing with LANS is basically to use different applications that make the LAN difficult to attack. An example of such application is VPN. To ensure that the network is not compromised, the other Safes must be used in conjunction with LANS.
SAVA – This is the best form of protecting sensitive data. Unlike LANS, the success of any attack is not easy here. The guide for sharing sensitive data with SAVA includes a layered approach and requires the usage of a number of VPN applications. The success of these VPN applications plays an important role in ensuring that no data gets lost. The chief weakness of SAVA is its cost. It can cost as much as hundreds of dollars per hour to use and the employees must be well versed with how to configure these applications themselves.
SERP – This is the most secure of the five choices for sensitive data sharing. The major advantage of using SERP is that it is quite expensive as compared to other forms of application. The main function of this algorithm is to ensure that only certain groups of employees have access to certain information. This is done by preventing unauthorized sharing of sensitive data by groups and departments. The major drawback of this algorithm is that it needs to be implemented with careful monitoring of employee activities. Moreover, the monitoring is based largely on the activities of departments that are authorized to access the sensitive information.
MRP – This is another popular algorithm used for sharing the same kind of information. This is widely used in industries like finance and banking because of its high security features. The major advantage of MRP is that it involves little hardware and software and it is also quite easy to use. On the down side, there has been very little research done on how MRP application works and whether or not it has any drawbacks.
Access control – A Data User Account or D OU is the first challenge that comes up when a company starts sharing information using its corporate server. The goal of this challenge is to make sure that only the authorized users have the proper exposed traps for the database. An example of a Data User Account is a user name and password. There are some other applications that allow users to create their own user accounts. In this case, an attempt would be made to translate the security tokens correctly and store the access rights correctly. There is still yet another challenge that is posed by this one: how do you translate the user permissions into the encryption key?
This poses a challenge for companies that are looking into Mobile Enterprise Application sharing. The answer lies in creating a suitable hierarchy of values that can be protected against unauthorized access. It is important that we come up with the right architecture and hierarchy to suit the type of data we want to share with our mobile users. One such example is the Recursive Attribute Set where we create a series of roles that need to be accessed by the users. For this reason, it is important that the company creates the right architecture to protect the database and the user permissions so as to be granted access.