How to protect a confidential document

Competition between companies is fierce in every sector. Against that backdrop, professionals frequently find their sensitive data compromised. Confidentiality and data protection being imperative, every company needs the right tools to protect its confidential documents. What exactly is a confidential document? And which protective measures can you choose to secure your company's confidential data?

What is a confidential company document?

Any medium holding personal data that could allow identity theft and threaten a company's future is a confidential document. Critical information might be an address, an account number, a social security number or a work email address, for instance.

A company has to manage a great many sensitive documents. The list of confidential documents is therefore a long one, and it varies with the size of the company or organisation concerned. Broadly, these are the documents considered confidential in a professional setting:

• management documents (restructuring plans, budgets, external growth operations, development strategy and so on),
• research and development documents (patents, formulas, technical information, intelligence, assessments of new products and so on),
• human resources documents (employment contracts, training plans, employees' personal files, health and safety data and so on),
• accounting documents (assets, investments, balance sheets, property transactions, invoicing and so on),
• sales and marketing documents (contracts, sales pitches, client lists, surveys, sales strategies, communications budgets and so on),
• documents about suppliers and partners (purchase orders, partner lists, negotiated rates and so on).

How can you protect your confidential documents?

Two complementary techniques can be used to protect confidential digital documents: identifying how confidential each of the company's documents is, and securing the authentication of everyone who reaches the documents the company manages.

Classifying documents properly

A good system for protecting sensitive documents has to follow what those documents contain. Four codes tell you whether a document needs protecting or not. They also indicate how sensitive the document is and what the consequences might be if it were stolen or lost. The codes are as follows:

• the "NC" or "C0" label,
• the "C1" label,
• the "C2" label,
• the "C3" label.

Documents marked C0 or NC (not classified) do not need protecting. They can be distributed outside the company with no fear of serious consequences. A document marked C1 is intended for internal use only, with no restriction on circulating it inside the company. A document marked C2 has restricted distribution: only people with explicit authorisation can reach it, and they may be from outside the company. As for documents carrying the C3 label, they hold information classified as secret. Losing one can harm the security, the strategic interests and even the survival of an organisation. Only a few people hold the specific clearance needed to open a C3 document.

Use a secure cloud platform with advanced access control

As part of going paperless, it is important to control access to your digital data strictly. Hosting your documents in the cloud is a practical, effective way to manage that. A reliable cloud platform offers you various tools for managing your sensitive data completely and well. You get access to excellent ways of storing, sharing and securing your data.

NetExplorer, the French specialist in cloud file management, gives you a platform where you can apply different levels of clearance and a range of distribution options (download limits, password protection and so on) to control who reaches your documents, sensitive ones included.

Intuitive and easy to use, the NetExplorer platform gives you tools for sharing files and folders internally. You can also use it to exchange data with your suppliers, clients, the media, partners or outside contractors. In just a few clicks, you can create, edit, save, send and download your files securely.

Your data is protected by an effective system of advanced access rights management. You can create whatever user accounts you need, whether personal or shared. That lets you share folders with one or several users and grant edit or read-only rights. You can also follow what each user does, and keep complete control over how your company's documents are distributed.

Our cloud storage service, entirely French, guarantees maximum security for your data and for digital files of every kind. The solutions we offer are flexible too, and adapt as your needs change, whether you run a very small business or a large group.

In an increasingly connected world, going paperless is no longer a luxury. Even for the smallest companies, it is a necessity. It opens up plenty of opportunities to grow. But sensitive data has to be protected carefully along the way. Classifying confidential documents by how important they are is one part of that. Controlling who reaches your data is another. A secure cloud platform will be a great help on both counts.