Secure document storage ensures documents maintain their confidentiality, integrity, and availability. It involves tools and practices that protect documents from unauthorized access, data breaches, damage, and loss.
Cybercriminals will try to exploit any vulnerability they can find. Unsecured documents leave room for these malicious entities to access your storage systems.
Before things could take a turn for the worse, it would be best to find ways to safeguard your stored information.
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Secure Document Storage Overview
Cyber risks, including data breaches, are ranked as the most important global risks impacting individuals and organizations. By the year 2025, global cybercrime costs are expected to reach $10.5 trillion, making prevention measures imperative.
As ransomware becomes more lucrative, attacks have increased, mainly targeting healthcare organizations, financial institutions, and government services. These organizations store countless documents containing sensitive information that malicious actors steal and sell illegally.
To prevent these incidents, you must use secure storage tools and implement best practices to prevent hackers from exploiting your valuable records.
Why Is It Important to Store Documents Securely?
Documents often contain sensitive information, such as personal data, financial records, intellectual property, and proprietary business information. By securing sensitive information, organizations can safeguard individual privacy and protect their assets from unauthorized access, theft, and misuse.
In the last quarter of 2023, data breaches exposed over 8 million records worldwide and cost an average of $4.45 million. Identity theft is a real concern, and company leaders worldwide consider data breaches one of the biggest business challenges.
By using secure records storage, you are protecting your company’s precious data from theft. This ultimately leads to increased customer trust, better company reputation, and higher earnings.
Key Features to Consider in Secure Document Storage Solutions
All secure document storage solutions share the following essential features:
Encryption
Look for solutions that use strong encryption algorithms and offer options for managing encryption keys securely. Data at rest and in transit should both be encrypted to prevent unauthorized access.
If you need to collaborate on a document, choose a solution that offers secure collaboration features such as access-based document sharing, version control, and real-time collaboration tools.
Access controls
Features like role-based access control (RBAC), multi-factor authentication (MFA), and fine-grained access policies ensure that only authorized users can access sensitive documents. The solution must also integrate seamlessly with your organization’s existing identity and access management (IAM) infrastructure.
Integration with identity providers such as Active Directory (AD) or Single Sign-On (SSO) solutions simplifies user authentication and centralizes user management.
Backup and disaster recovery
Robust backup and disaster recovery capabilities protect against data loss due to hardware failures, natural disasters, or other unforeseen events.
Also, it would be best to look for built-in data loss prevention features that help prevent accidental or malicious leakage of sensitive documents. DLP capabilities include content scanning, policy enforcement, and automated alerts for potential security violations.
Compliance features
If your organization is subject to regulatory requirements such as GDPR, HIPAA, or SOX, look for features that help ensure compliance with relevant regulations. The solution must also provide detailed audit logs of specific information such as user identities, actions performed, timestamps, and IP addresses to facilitate compliance auditing and investigation of security incidents.
Choose a solution that utilizes secure storage infrastructure with redundant storage, data replication, and data integrity checks to ensure the availability and reliability of stored documents.
How To Ensure Secure Document Storage
Securing document storage is a combination of many things, including the following:
Using the right solutions
Using appropriate and adequate technical controls, such as firewalls, VPNs, and security software, will prevent threats like malware from entering your system. You’d also catch any attacks before they escalate. Use data backup solutions to anticipate unforeseen events, ensuring data availability and minimizing workflow disruptions.
Sticking to reputable, secure document storage online providers also increases your chances of avoiding costly data breaches. While no solution can guarantee 100% security (even the most secure facilities fall victim to attacks), a reputable provider will exhaust all possible strategies to keep your documents secure.
Investing in training
74% of data breaches are due to human error, which includes privilege misuse, stolen credentials, and social engineering. Malicious actors commonly use phishing methods through emails, where 94% of malware is delivered.
Educating employees on security best practices and the latest security threats will increase their awareness of potential attacks and protect them from falling prey to hackers. Create a culture where employees are always on alert for possible threats, encouraging them to report any suspicious activity immediately.
Creating comprehensive security policies
Lastly, creating organizational policies such as record management or data security policies will define how documents and data are treated, stored, and disposed of. Everyone in the company must know these policies and commit to follow them. Periodically updating these policies also ensures they remain effective and relevant.
Ensure Secure Online Document Storage With iFax
Online faxing offers a fast and convenient method to share valuable information online. With the right solution, you can keep your online faxes secure and safe from prying eyes.
iFax uses military-grade encryption technology to protect faxes, keeping your critical documents safe. Our comprehensive solution also provides advanced options such as passwords and multi-factor authentication to prevent unauthorized access.
With iFax’s secure faxing solution, ensuring compliance with industry regulations such as HIPAA and GLBA is simple and hassle-free.
Request a demo now or start a trial plan.
