File/ Email Encryption is difficult and, as a result, new solutions overlooked
Since you’re reading this, you the reader probably use a company laptop or desktop computer, or somehow separate your environment from home/ personal use. You have an Internet connection and email. You probably have company documents (files) that you author, receive, review, and/ or edit. Some of them are on your computer, some in the cloud – most in both (and many more) places.
How do you protect that kind of data? Encrypt data at the source? Too hard. Or is it? Let’s look at all the reasons we’ve avoided this in the past, then spend a minute to see if SSProtect makes the grade. Maybe it’s time to look…
Let Me Count the Ways…
Victorian poetry aside…and of course we love our customers (and even our competitors)…let’s jump right into the list of reasons why you do not want to use file/ email encryption:
– It’s hard to install and setup
– It’s difficult to learn
– It doesn’t let you do what you need to do
– It prohibits use with all the utility software you’ve installed
– IT doesn’t want yet another technology to deploy and manage
– It won’t work with anything IT didn’t install and rubber-stamp
– It slows things down; simple tasks take inordinately long to execute
– It doesn’t actually do very much (other than get in the way)
– Email encryption breaks
We could easily expand on that list, drill-down, and spend multiple columns on all the details. Ultimately, encryption software has sucked for awhile. It hasn’t been very effective either.
So to consider the idea of deploying such a thing, we’d have to be very wrong about how the past has played out – or find something inordinately new, different – even innovative.
But What If…
What if we told you we’ve addressed a good bit of these problems? WAIT! Before you, “hang up” on us..what if? Wouldn’t it be worth a few minutes??
First: We recognize and respect the parade of false pretense that has plagued our industry. We’re burned out too.
Second: This was our primary motivation. As technologists, we knew that effectiveness and simplicity were no longer mutually exclusive. The question for us was whether or not we could stop nation-state attackers and achieve the simplicity we were after.
After four years of engineering and two years of refinement, we’ve gone beyond our original goals to deliver on our original vision: A platform of related data protection services you get to pick and choose, on the fly, as you see fit.
Let’s revisit the realities we presented, and see how we stack up. Maybe it’s not a foregone conclusion anymore…
Hard To Use, In The Way
Data encryption has been Intrusive, Difficult to use, and Ineffective. Let’s start with first part of that reality.
It’s hard to install and setup We will in the very near future replace our 91-second video that shows installation of our 7 MB (yes, MB) software along with configuration and data protection. it shows an Individual Account, though you can create an Organization from that in a few more seconds (or at the same time). Deploy additional Users in a few more minutes, and you’re in the game.
It’s difficult to learn After the, say, 2 minutes of install/ configuration, open File Explorer, pick a few data files, right-click, choose, SSProtect Activate. Content protected, and in most cases, the rest is the same: Open/ Edit/ Close, share…no manual decrypt/ re-encrypt. Peer sharing is automatic (see below), external is policy-based.
It prohibits use with all the utility software you’ve installed Example: Dropbox, Box, and the like (EFSS)…with us, there’s no add-in; we work in the filesystem. In fact, our software protects from plaintext cloud exposure if you access a managed file in a sync folder. Because our integration is application-independent, we deliver continuous in-use protection too.
Of IT and Other Useful Things
The last thing an IT team needs is a new piece of technology with a bunch of bells and whistles designed to, “differentiate” one offering from another. A nightmare. We took a different approach.
IT doesn’t want yet another technology to deploy and manage We designed our software from a self-deployment perspective, not just for Users but also teams. Though we call the construct an Organization, you can administer from IT, split duties with appointed team members, or handle it independently. Overhead is minimal. For example, Organization Peer sharing is automatic, and external sharing is Policy-based. This makes life easy for users and auditors – while segmenting access against internal threats/ malice.
It won’t work with anything IT didn’t install and rubber-stamp As noted above, the software doesn’t bother with anything other than the content you’ve asked it to manage. This uses a form of Access Control and allows you to prohibit access using unsigned applications, however does not impose any policy-based application permissions. That’s between you and IT.
Slow, Useless, if not Broken
It slows things down; simple tasks take inordinately long to execute You can, with a trial, test fully-functional software. We’ve placed a high degree of importance on performance. Feedback has been positive.
It doesn’t actually do very much (other than get in the way) We talk about ineffective host encryption quite often, and will soon offer a new article on encryption and our patented approach. Taking that aside, SSProtect is more than encryption: It not only maintains protection on compromised hosts, but also provides IT-centric, scalable services that can be added when necessary. These include integrated/ automatic secure and version-based Backup/ Restore, fine-grained auditing and Usage Reporting, Disaster Recovery (archive reconstruction), Ransomware/ Sabotage Remediation, Objective Disclosure Risk Reporting, and even Honeypots. Start simple, then grow.
Email Encryption Breaks For reasons beyond the scope of this article, Outlook Email protection has become an adventure in uptime maintenance. :Email, when included, is auto-configured for you, acting only as an information proxy. All protection is carried out using our :Expand API. This improves stability and effectiveness.
Do a Dollup!
If you read this far, it might be worth noting that a free trial takes less time. Seeing is believing, and we invite you to download and try our software for a couple weeks before deciding if it’s right for you. Send any and all questions to support@definisec.com. We will do everything we can to meet your needs.
If you like what you see, do us a favor? Pass it on! It’s time to put a stop to criminal behavior that preys on people and companies making an honest living.