Companies interested in adopting modern file-sharing and collaboration solutions typically consider two choices.
The first choice is to stay the course, with company security the paramount concern. By making it difficult and time-consuming to share information, this option impacts the level of collaboration conducted by the organization, which minimizes productivity.
The second choice is to choose the course of full speed ahead as the company encourages sharing information and fostering collaboration. This strategy makes it easy for employees to collaborate within and outside the organization, ramping up productivity and hopefully revenue. The danger of this choice is dramatically increasing the chance of sensitive data loss (e.g., intellectual property) while also failing to comply with global data protection regulations.
However, there is a third choice, one that does not hinder data loss prevention efforts while allowing as much collaboration as possible. This choice is called secure data collaboration, and it is emerging as an information security strategy for our modern age.
What is Secure Data Collaboration?
Secure Data Collaboration (SDC) is sharing data between two parties securely and productively. BAE systems has a great definition: Secure Data Collaboration and Dissemination is a type of electronic information sharing capability in which two or more parties can each securely exchange their data with each other in an encrypted software environment – for collaboration on projects, for example, or dissemination of sensitive information – while always maintaining control of their data.
The key here is that SDC is not “encrypting the data itself” nor “preventing collaboration.” SDC is securely exchanging data in an environment that is already secure and globally adopted (e.g., Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online, OneDrive).
Before every organization in the world accelerated to the cloud in 2020, one might argue that these environments were not that accessible; how many Global 2000 organizations deployed and used OneDrive globally? Fast forward to 2021, and in the past year, the adoption of M365 accelerated faster than anyone could have predicted. As a result, most organizations have access to these secure cloud containers and are now ready to become modern collaborators. It is during this transition to modern collaboration that SDC will disrupt traditional information security solutions, and here are the top 3 reasons why:
- Traditional information security solutions were built on an assumption of prevention: Locking data down or stopping data from leaving the organization are disabling collaboration, not enabling it. This attitude does not work for modern collaborators who want to accelerate productivity and service delivery for their customers. However, SDC is built on the assumption that organizations want to share data with 3rd parties; they need help managing the access controls to the secure container (e.g., Microsoft Teams).
- Secure Data Collaboration is built from the cloud for the cloud: Information Rights Management (IRM) and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) were initially built to support traditional enterprises, mainly operating on-premises. Modern collaboration demands security solutions that are purpose-built from the cloud and for the cloud. Collaboration is constantly changing, and on-premise solutions are not adaptive. SDC requires a solution that assumes change.
- Productivity will always outweigh security: This has been an ongoing debate since the dawn of information security; however, the last year has proven that organizations will do whatever it takes to ensure their employees can remain productive. We thought organizations that would take another five years to “go digital” did it in weeks and accepted that the security controls would be playing a bit of catch-up. Traditional information security solutions that continue to put roadblocks in front of productivity will no longer cut it. SDC is focused on truly striking that balance for its users.
If you would like to learn how eShare can deliver a modern solution that secures your company data while enabling employee collaboration, please contact us to arrange a demo. The eShare team will be writing more about secure data collaboration in the coming weeks, and we are excited to share more developments on this topic.
