The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/116777
Contain Yourself: Top Five Ways To Protect Mobile Data have the data that users need. Users are looking for a fast, convenient way of sharing files across devices. Too often, users turn to free but risky public cloud file-sharing services, such as Dropbox. These services make it easy to automatically share files across devices and to send files to other users. Unfortunately, these services are not secure; they have suffered data breaches. Dropbox, for example, accidentally disabled password protection on all its customers' accounts for four hours. In addition, these services lack the centralized control and monitoring features that law firms need. When confidential files are stored in a service like Dropbox, IT departments lose visibility and control. These file-sharing services do not keep any record of which files have been shared or with whom. It's impossible to demonstrate the preservation of confidentiality with these services. Their consumergrade security features are fine for protecting vacation photos, but inadequate for protecting and tracking confidential files such as those law firms work with every day. There are excellent reasons for law firms to adopt mobile devices. But firms need to address these security challenges in order to take advantage of the substantial collaboration and productivity benefits offered by mobile computing. When law firm employees lose devices with case matter, clientattorney confidentiality is put in jeopardy. Leverage a Secure File-Sharing Solution It is possible to make consumer mobile devices secure. New filesharing solutions install secure software "containers" on mobile devices. These containers shield confidential business data from unauthorized access and from malware that has infected other files on the device. The secure containers can be controlled remotely and configured by IT departments. In effect, they provide IT administrators with a secure storage area on every authorized employee's mobile device. If a device is lost or stolen, administrators can quickly disable access rights for all files in that container on the device. Colman Murphy is the Director of Product Marketing, Enterprise at Accellion, Inc. He is responsible for all aspects of marketing for the company's enterprise content integration solutions. Colman has more than 20 years of experience in marketing communications and product management in software and imaging products for enterprise, prosumer and consumer markets. He can be contacted at colman.murphy@accellion.com. Peer to Peer 21