Whether you agree with what Edward Snowden did or not, an important question to ask is: how did he get away with it? How can we live in this day and age, with all of its technological advances, and yet not even know how much data Mr. Snowden was able to gather before fleeing the country?
Let’s put this into perspective. Google knows what I’m thinking before I type it into the search box. Amazon just announced that they are going to ship me products automatically before I know I need them. They refer to this technology as “predictive behavior”. If these companies predict my behavior before I even act, how is it possible that sensitive, valuable data can be copied, downloaded, and taken without anyone’s knowledge before or after the event? Furthermore, how is it possible to still not know what or how much he took?
I was recently watching the Nightly News and a high ranking, ex-government official admitted that over 80% of the data in government is not secure, and there is no way to know how many employees interact with it. This is alarming because some of that data contains my information, as well as my family’s. Although technology is not fool-proof, I would at least like to know if my data has been compromised. It gives me the opportunity to be proactive in protecting myself, or even my company.
We rolled out our first product five years ago but made sure that it did not go live until we had a way to audit files. You see, in addition to simply uploading and sharing files, we feel it is critical to know who accesses those files and exactly what they do with them. Although this feature may not be as sexy as desktop sync or mobile access, it is an absolute requirement in today’s world for anyone allowing file sharing within their organization.
When you start looking for a file-sharing provider, make sure you ask yourself: what would happen if someone used your data against you?
Image credit: Guardian Liberty Voice