Document DRM: Replacing Encryption as the Standard for Document Protection

The Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and big data are going to play an increasing role in securing the digital information that travels through IoT devices and is stored in the cloud. Having a central control system where multiple vendors and systems can share information securely and provide similar capabilities is critical. As organizations continue to integrate the physical and the digital, data security and document protection continues to remain a priority. E-Discovery and litigation support companies need to have a more holistic view of how a company handles and protects information in order to compete and protect their clients.

Data Compliance: Crucial to Keeping Internal Systems Safe

Securing the organizational network is a major concern for enterprise organizations, and dealing with data compliance is a major part of that effort. Compliance with federal, state, and local regulations is often governed by state or federal law, and each of those statutes has different requirements, or rules and regulations. Additionally, compliance with the standards organizations such as the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), the Data Protection Initiative (DPI), and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) will need to be met.

New types of data security threats

Data threats continue to evolve and change, and organizations need to stay abreast of emerging threats. Malware continues to evolve to become more and more efficient. This evolution is driven by the desire to evade detection and that has resulted in more dangerous and malicious software. The proliferation of DDoS attacks (distributed denial of service) has significantly changed the environment for security professionals and companies. Traditional DDoS attacks have been shown to be capable of causing massive traffic overloads, interrupting services, and crippling network resources. This evolution has been mainly driven by the popularity of DDoS botnets, made up of millions of devices compromised to launch a DDoS attack. They often are hosted on cloud services, and are being used in the most advanced DDoS attacks. Some of these bots are now capable of sending multi-gigabit packets at sustained speeds to overload network infrastructure.

Once your organization’s computer network is compromised, the hackers have unfettered access to your data, applications, and systems. This type of attack is known as a “man in the middle” attack, and the hackers, for example, have replaced the normal looking traffic with one they control, or “spoof,” and siphon the data from the victim’s system. Many types of DDoS attacks are possible, but a multi-gigabit attack is very impressive.

The increase in spam attacks has also increased. This has been driven by the ease of sending email with encryption to conceal data, as well as the use of Internet service providers (ISPs) to direct the recipient of the email to a specific website to download the attachment. These spam campaigns are often focused on exploiting the “SMTP” (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) protocol to send thousands of emails. Email has a high priority for hackers, because this is one of the key methods used for the transportation of data over the Internet.

Document DRM security for document protection

As businesses become more technologically dependent, the need to protect information and data has become an even greater concern. PDF DRM provides document security and compliance features that offer added protection of data assets. These features ensure the security of your content while also guaranteeing compliance with the requirements of several Federal and State statutes. 

Secure document handling solutions

There are many options available today when it comes to PDF DRM. Many offer security features, such as data encryption, editing restrictions, copy protection and watermarking, that guarantee a protected PDF. 

Based on your organization’s needs, PDF DRM can be tailored to meet your requirements. The tools, such as filters and rules, can be built in, or accessed via desktop software, cloud service, or mobile apps. PDF DRM solutions are easy to deploy, as they are delivered as cloud services, making it a quick and easy process to assign and protect your documents.

With a firm grasp of your organization’s requirements, incorporating DRM solutions into your organization can provide maximum security, compliance, and workflow efficiency for your document content and IT resources.

Secure Document Handling For Your Documents with DRM

The right PDF DRM solution should be built, integrated and customized for your organization’s unique needs with a level of security that’s unmatched. Security has to be addressed by a fundamental principle. All PDF DRM and PDF/A solutions must be well integrated with the rest of the organization’s security and encryption infrastructure.

Secure Document Handling Practices and Best Practices

Evaluate your organization’s IT environments and ensure they are secure and that you’re not overlooking ways to improve your security posture. These practices are important for a complete security program:

1. Practice proactive phishing tests with your employee and management email and phone systems to ensure you’re securing these systems as well. 

2. Deploy an antivirus and firewall with malware detection and capabilities that can alert IT staff to cyber threat actors.

3. Add capabilities that can alert IT staff to cyber threat actors. Design and build from the start for data loss prevention (DLP) and encryption.

4. Add encryption. Implement strong security standards, including Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS), to ensure your organization is compliant with requirements of federal government.

5. Implement data management, protection, and analytics features in addition to DLP and encryption that will help IT administrators know more about what is happening regarding document use and what processes are in place to protect the document.

6. Have strong security protocols, but treat information as much more valuable than it is in today’s high-tech, low-security environment.

7. Provide additional training to ensure IT staff, as well as end-users, understand the security implications of how they handle information in daily operations.

In today’s high-tech, low-security environment, information has to be treated as much more valuable. Advanced technologies, such as PDF DRM, can ensure the integrity of the information in a way that’s easily compatible with any organizational strategy.

Organizations can use PDF DRM to ensure that data loss prevention (DLP) and encryption features are integrated into the workflow and that they’re able to comply with federal government security standards, like FIPS 140-2, while also providing advanced analytics that help IT staff observe document use and protecting the information from cyber threat actors.

With these practices in place, you’re one step closer to ensuring your organization can protect and manage your valuable, confidential and sensitive documents and content.