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What is Document Security?

Document security, or document access security, is the process of safeguarding documents and files from unwanted access or theft. It also refers to procedures carried out to prevent data from being manipulated or reproduced wrongfully.  Examples of document security policies include encrypting document, controlling access to confidential information, and monitoring the use of document and files. In addition, documents can be secured by restricting usage to prevent document damage, using secure computer systems and networks, and proper removal of unattended documents and records.

Importance of Document Security

With the significant increase in data being produced by businesses each year, a clear, well-defined document security plan is required to secure critical business information. To secure sensitive data, document security is crucial for businesses of any size.  

Implementing document security can minimize or prevent any data breaches or misuse. Organizations have to ensure that only authorized individuals have access to the documents, which is the aspect of document security that businesses across the world often struggle with. Document security resolves this by enabling enterprises to easily monitor access and authorization. It secures the maintenance of files in their entire lifecycle of storage, backup, processing, and delivery through features like encryption, watermarking, and data rights management.   

Additionally, document security can lower the risk of data corruption. Corruption can occur when users have damaged sections in their hard drives or storage media that might contain viruses or malware. Document damage can also be caused maliciously by hackers that install dangerous malware in order to change or destroy information, in an attempt to conduct ransomware. 

Best Practices of Implementing Document Security using Digital Rights Management (DRM)

Document security is an important part of the overall security effort for businesses. Thankfully, there are tools and technologies that can help organizations to manage and protect their data. Protecting numerous sensitive information types should be the top priority because failing to do so would threaten the effectiveness of the whole enterprise.

Document security uses digital rights management as a way to enact document encryption and watermarking. This ensures that documents are highly secured and can only be seen by those with proper authorization.

Digital Rights Management (DRM) is the process of managing, controlling, and securing data from unauthorized users. The purpose of DRM solutions is to protect the author’s rights and restrict unauthorized distribution or modification. By requesting authorization (automatically or manually) prior to getting access, DRM will increase the security of assets through persistent file protection. This will guarantee that only those with the necessary access rights can view the information. 

Document/file encryption can be used as a way to enforce DRM. When team members use on-premises or cloud documents for data transfer, or document share, encryption can prevent documents from being viewed by unintended individuals. This way, if the document gets into the wrong hands, the unintended user will not be able to view it even if they may have access to the folder in which the document is stored. 

Additionally, files can be watermarked to ensure file security. Watermarks can be described as a stamp that has been added statically or continuously on the original document in the form of text or an image. When implemented properly, it will prohibit people from disclosing details while helping to track down the leak’s source by dynamically attaching the employee’s identity to the original documents. Applying a watermark on intellectual property is essential in many industries to identify the viewer, the date and time the document was accessed, and to notify them that this version of the document is not the most recent. 

With digital rights management technologies, file sharing security can be ensured when sharing files or documents, reducing the risk of unwanted disclosure of information, and it safeguards critical and confidential data.

For more information on how to enforce document security, check out our whitepaper on Enterprise Digital Rights Management (E-DRM).

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