Managed File Transfer Solutions | Secure File Transfer Software | UK » Ad Hoc File Transfer

Dropbox Alternative – Day Two at InfoSecurity Europe

James Lewis — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 08:45:38 +0000

With the sun beating down outside you could have been mistaken in thinking the IT community would stay away from Earls Court, but day two of InfoSec was packed.

Pro2col had the pleasure of assisting on the Globalscape stand, on what is traditionally the busiest day. With Chaz and Chris Thacker both providing demos the stand was busy and the message was coming through loud and clear; IT Professionals want a Dropbox Alternative.

A study by security distributor e92plus that I read at the show highlighted that some 76% of IT Professionals in the UK had Dropbox at the top of its list of banned
technologies. This was very much reflected by the conversations we had and the demonstrations of Globalscape solutions provided.

The most popular solution by far was Mail Express. Visitors loved the web based functionality and MicroSoft Outlook plugin. The Drop Off Portal also proved a big success as IT admins learned how they could provide a hands off facility for large files to come into the business without the need for setting up FTP accounts or clogging up email servers with attachments.

If you’d like to learn more about how Globalscape solutions could help your business Replace Dropbox, contact Globalscape’s UK Master Partner here.

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Five things every business manager should know about file sharing practices

Jeff Whitney — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 14:43:08 +0000

A blog written by Jeff Whitney, vice president of marketing for Ipswitch File Transfer

Businesses face a real threat – their employees. That’s right, increasingly tech-savvy employees have turned to a diverse range of file transfer tools that are beyond the sight of IT management.

Employees see webmail, file sharing services, cloud storage, USB sticks and smart devices as easier to use than traditional corporate tools to transfer files. But this trend ignores the security risks and regulatory implications of using file transfer methods entirely outside of corporate control.

Here’s five things you should know about your employees’ habits and the need for secure file transfer technology:

1. Insecure means are used to send confidential files. Recent surveys we have run to monitor user behaviour found that a vast majority (84%) of respondents send classified or confidential information through corporate email attachments. Of those, 72% do this at least weekly and 52% daily. That means employees are using unsanctioned tools in record numbers, resulting in a lack of visibility and control.

2. Many employees use personal email to send company documents and data. Users may think they can’t afford delays or slowdowns associated with jumping through perceived hoops to send out information and files that keep business humming. And if the business doesn’t provide the tools they need to send large and confidential attachments, or if the processes and technologies are too difficult to use, then users will take matters into their own hands – and their own email.

3. Employees are using consumer-grade file transfer services for business purposes. If the corporate email system limits the size of file attachments or if IT vetoes service requests, resourceful employees don’t throw up their hands in resignation: they look for workarounds. And the growing popularity of file transfer sites and cloud services aimed at consumers is making it easier for business users to sidestep IT. More than half of the users we surveyed admitted they use these services.

4. Risk of data theft is high. When business users aren’t turning to personal email accounts or free file-sharing services, they may be putting files on USB thumb drives, smartphones or other external devices. Unfortunately, our market research shows that almost one-third of users had lost a USB device, smartphone or other external device containing business or personal information – a tremendous risk for any organisation.

5. IT Management Visibility into Data Management is Low, Putting Businesses at Risk. Most companies create and maintain policies that mandate the use of approved tools for moving and sharing information. However, our research shows fewer than 32% strictly enforce these policies, making these mandates largely meaningless. No visibility means no compliance with internal policies or external regulations and laws.

The file sharing habits of employees can be risky but is driven by their desire to get work done. The business need and IT desire to control file sharing is equally important. Fortunately, companies don’t have to choose between risky behaviour and productivity. Using secure file transfer technology, employees can get the convenience, ease-of-use, and speed they need while IT and the business get the control, visibility, security and compliance they need.

Click here to download a free report, published by Ipswitch File Transfer that provides insights into causes and trends in risky data and file sharing, ways in which IT has fallen behind in safeguarding information, plus the associated dangers and proven means to safeguard corporate data without impeding user productivity.

Pro2col are a certified Ipswitch File Transfer Elite Reseller and have been working with Ipswitch since 2010 to supply, deploy and support their range of managed file transfer solutions to UK businesses. If you like more information on secure managed file transfer, don’t hesitate to contact us.

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Ipswitch MOVEit Ad Hoc shortlisted for SC Magazine Technology Award

Jeff Whitney — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 09:02:43 +0000

Ipswitch File Transfer MOVEit Ad Hoc has been shortlisted by SC Magazine for a Technology Award in the category of ‘Best SME Security Solution’. Our secure person-to-person file transfer solution has been recognised among the most innovative products addressing the security demands of smaller enterprises today. Winners will be announced at the SC Magazine Europe Awards on 23 April, to be held at London’s Hilton Park Lane.

MOVEit Ad Hoc ensures secure sending and receiving of sensitive files and messages between individuals and groups. It provides peace of mind for businesses sharing mission critical digital information with their employees, partners and customers using Outlook or any simple browser interface. A recent Ipswitch study reveals that more than a third of people sharing information are doing so insecurely, through personal email or consumer file-sharing sites. MOVEit Ad Hoc provides a simple yet secure solution to sharing files which avoids this increasingly prevalent risky behaviour.

For over 20 years Ipswitch has been a leader in providing secure Managed File Transfer solutions. So it is an honour to be recognised by SC Magazine, not just for ourselves, but on behalf of the many businesses and industries that already depend upon Ipswitch File Transfer to protect their most valuable and sensitive information. It’s also particularly rewarding for MOVEit Ad Hoc to be recognised on the heels of our recent launch – our easy-to-use, IT-approved, person to person file transfer solution.

SC Magazine is the world’s largest dedicated IT security publication, serving the industry for over 15 years. The SC Awards Europe is among the most coveted and prestigious accolades for the information security industry, honouring vendors that deliver the most innovative security technologies.

A panel of industry judges from the information security profession will now pass judgement on the products and services put before them, including Ipswitch File Transfer MOVEit Ad Hoc. Review the shortlist for every category here. Read the latest awards build-up and coverage here. Book tickets for the event here, and find out more about MOVEit Ad Hoc here.

Guest Blog by Jeff Whitney, Vice President of Marketing, Ipswitch File Transfer

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Are Employees Putting Your Company’s Data at Risk?

Lindsay Lewis — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:35:42 +0000

One of our key vendors, Ipswitch File Transfer conducted a survey of over 200 IT leaders and practitioners with security responsibilities about person-to-person file-sharing practices. From the results that they gathered, this is what they found…

These results should alarm IT and security professionals. Findings show that employees are circumventing IT staff by sending confidential and highly sensitive company files via means that are insecure and lack auditability. The results serve as a graphic reminder that when company systems hinder employee productivity, it’s both a security risk and bad for business.

There’s no way to sugarcoat the results of the survey, the highlights of which you can see in the Infographic below. Click here to register to receive the full research report results and recommendations.

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Personal File Sharing in the Business: The Risks

Lindsay Lewis — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 11:53:17 +0000

It may be a new year, but we’re still facing the same old challenges on our return to the working world. Personal file sharing is one of those challenges. If employees are left to their own devices, the chances are they will turn to familiar consumer grade technologies such as Dropbox that were just not designed to adequately secure business data.

Micheal Osterman of Osterman Research succinctly summarises some of the key issues surrounding personal file sharing in his white paper, “Business-Class File Sharing Best Practices”. Here is an excerpt from the paper:

Excerpted from “Business-Class File Sharing Best Practices”

The Status Quo Doesn’t Work

Users are stymied because company email systems often do not permit file attachments of more than 10 to 20 megabytes to be sent, and it is not efficient at sending more than a few files at a time. Moreover, email doesn’t typically include a return receipt so the sender can know if the recipient ever received the email. Also, when email is used for file transfer, it imposes increased storage and bandwidth costs, slow message delivery, long backups, long restores, high IT management costs.
Many users will turn to their personal Webmail account because of their ability to send very large files through these systems. However, when users do so there is no IT visibility into the sent or received content, no tracking, no auditability, and no archiving. Moreover, corporate content can reside in personal Webmail repositories for many years, long after an employee may have left the company. While this makes life easier for users, it increases the risk to the organisation.
USB sticks, tablets and smartphones create the same problems: lack of security, higher costs, their likelihood of being lost or stolen, and the potential for content on them to be accessed by unauthorised parties.
Dropbox-like file sharing tools and cloud services can be effective, but they do not permit IT management or governance of content. And, they often are individual accounts and not under the sanction of IT which means that IT doesn’t have the visibility or insight into what is being transferred, nor does IT maintain any type of audit trail for this content.
SharePoint and similar tools are useful for sharing information if both senders and recipients are using it. However, SharePoint require the deployment of a dedicated infrastructure and training for end users, and it is not always easily accessible by remote workers or people external to an organisation.
Basic FTP client-server systems, while useful, require both the sender and recipient to have access to the FTP server to share information, which can be an ongoing provisioning burden for IT.
Physical delivery of information – such as CD-ROMs or DVD-ROMs that are burned and sent through overnight services – is expensive and the speed of delivery is slow

If you’d like to learn more about secure file sharing practices, you can access the full Osterman whitepaper here. Alternatively, if you’d like to discuss your specific file sharing challenges with one of our managed file transfer experts, please don’t hesitate to contact us on 0333 123 1240.

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Socitm 2012: Managed File Transfer for Councils

Lindsay Lewis — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 12:05:38 +0000

We’ve been working closely with councils throughout the UK to simplify, secure and streamline their file transfer, so we couldn’t miss the opportunity to attend Socitm 2012; the No. 1 UK ICT event for councils. The conference has kicked off today (here’s a breakdown of the programme) and the Pro2col team are ready and waiting to share the knowledge and experience that we have gained from working with councils to secure person-to-person file transfers and automate the movement of sensitive data into and out of the organisation.

On a similar note, this is the ideal moment to publically release our lastest e-book: The Council’s Guide to Secure Managed File Transfer, which is now available for download. It covers a range of issues surrounding the secure movement within councils including:

How to eliminate the problems caused when employees resort to insecure, non-compliant file transfer methods such as email.
Ensuring you meet with UK data security and compliance legislation including The Data Protection Act and PCI DSS.
Providing your employees with a quick and simple way to send and receive sensitive files both internally and with third parties.
Automating the transfer of files, saving time and money.
How to regain control over file transfer processes and user access.

If you’re at the conference and would like to speak to one of our managed file transfer experts, drop by stand 8 (piccy attached) – we’re always happy to help. If you’ve not been able to make it this year and you’d like to talk to us, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the office on 0333 123 1240.

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Ad Hoc Managed File Transfer – Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes but nothing for Apple Mac?

James Lewis — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 11:13:16 +0000

It would be fair to say that a clear majority of the IT professionals we speak to on a weekly basis want to regain some control over the data that their employees send. In the past, many IT administrators would start with the customary approach of limiting the size of email attachments that could be sent via the email server. However, this only resulted in employees searching for alternative ways of sending files – frequently the choice was a SaaS/Cloud based, consumer grade solutions such as YouSendit, Mailbigfile, Dropbox, the list goes on!

In general employees intentions are honourable but when they need to ‘get the job done’, they adopt for the path of least resistance i.e quick and easy solutions that they can sign up to for free. This however creates a minefield for the IT and Compliance departments who tackle a daily myriad of issues around tracking, governance and security of corporate data. With no online service completely immune from attack (take the recent announcements around LinkedIn and Yahoo) the issue is very real and pressing.

Inevitably the bottom line is that the business needs to invest in an ad hoc file transfer solution that enables employees to send files on an ad hoc basis. Fortunately for businesses this issue has existed for some time, and a number of the managed file transfer vendors we work with offer solutions to these problems. Selecting the right solution depends upon the number of users, security requirements, size of the data sets, preferred deployment option (on-site/hosted/SaaS), specific functionality required and budget – but that’s where we come in to help you through the vendor selection process.

Finally let’s not forget that there are a wide variety of email clients used in today’s businesses. The most dominant – Microsoft Outlook has been well addressed by the majority of managed file transfer vendors. Lotus Notes on the other hand hasn’t received the same time and attention but there are a couple of options out there, I guess this is down to size of their shrinking market share. When it comes to Apple however everyone falls short. This has little to do with the developers ability – more with the architecture of Apple Mail, Microsoft Entourage or Outlook for Mac, none of which support plugin’s in the same way. Still, all of the vendors provide a webmail facility if you need to support Mac OS users.

For further assistance in selecting the most appropriate ad hoc file transfer solution for your business please get in touch with the UK’s leading MFT experts on 0333 123 1240.

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Managed File Transfer – Remote Access Removed or Remote File Termination?

James Lewis — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 15:28:17 +0000

Managed file transfer solutions are the ideal technology to share files securely with remote trading partners and customers. This is what they were designed to do and in the most part, they all provide a simple interface to achieve this. Some provide a web browser facility, whilst others offer additional plugins such as a Microsoft Outlook Plugin or less conventionally, a Lotus Notes Plugin. However the one common way in which the majority of these technologies work is for the file to remain on a web server, to be collected by the intended recipient. This then provides the system with an audit trail of when the file was downloaded and in most cases, to which IP address – confirming the users location.

This is great in most instances but imagine a situation where you’ve sent an email using the plugin within your email client of choice, only to later find that you’ve attached the wrong document. Worse than that, it contains sensitive customer or financial data – what then? You make a frantic call to your IT Help Desk asking them to delete the file or remove access to it. You then get confirmation from the kind Support Desk person to say that they’ve action your request. Great, you’re in the clear…. but upon returning to your email you see that your customer has already downloaded the file and you have the email notification to prove it. Where you usually greet the notification with a shrug of the shoulders in the knowledge that the managed file transfer solution has once again done its job, this time it leaves you cold!

Fortunately not all managed file transfer solutions are built the same. Some have DLP capabilities ensuring that sensitive data is quarantined whilst one vendor we work with provides a very unique capability, remote file termination. How is this done I hear you ask, well give us a call and we’ll tell you! Suffice to say, this type of technology provides the highest levels of security available therefore isn’t pitched at your general ad hoc file transfer users. It’s more appropriate for those companies dealing with extremely sensitive data, e.g. data needing to be exchanged between board members, patent information, IPO, MBO, acquisitions and mergers information and so on.

If your business has a requirement to move data in a more secure manner than your existing file transfer technology allows, speak to Pro2col as we’ve got technologies that can handle the most sensitive of data.

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Email Attachment Management: Facilitating Secure, Large File Transfer

Lindsay Lewis — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 10:49:49 +0000

Typically, email is the first port of call for all non-technical staff members when faced with the task of sending large documents quickly. We’re now in an age where data leaks are common place and authorities are cracking down on insufficient security policies. According to figures published by IDG Research Services, the companies that they surveyed rated email as the third highest area of concern when it came to the security of their data. The fact of the matter is, standard email is just not capable of meeting modern day security requirements. Not only this, there are other associated problems to consider when using email for large file transfer such as email attachment management, size limitations, unpredictable deliverability of files, bandwidth utilisation and storage problems.

So businesses are reacting to these issues by implementing sophisticated technologies that address these concerns – which is great – but unfortunately, this is a 1-dimensional solution to a 2-dimensional problem. Providing the facilities to send files securely is one thing, guaranteeing that all file transfers within the business are completed using these facilities is another matter altogether.

The question is, how do you stop staff members bypassing new technologies in favour of good old trusty, familiar solutions such as email? The answer is – enable them to continue to use it. Alongside web browser upload options provided, email attachment management solutions offer plugins that can be integrated with existing email clients, to enable ground level users to attach files and send them securely via email. The difference is that rather than filtering through email servers, large email attachments are handed off to the email attachment management solution where they are encrypted, stored and a notification email sent onto the recipient containing a secure download link to the file.

So…

Your confidential information remain secure.
You avoid the fines and penalties being enforced by authorities such as the ICO, for failing to meet security compliance legislation.
The reputational risk associated with loss of customer data is negated.
Email servers and storage systems are not overwhelmed by a mass of large data files.
File transfers come with a full audit trail.
You can be notified when a recipient downloads a file, providing accountability and more reliable file transfers.
Large file transfer is quick, secure and user friendly for staff, allowing them to concentrate on being productive.

Take a look at this short video to find out more about what an email attachment management solution can offer you…

If you’d like to find out more about email attachment management, Biscom Delivery Server or any of the other secure, ad hoc file transfer solutions we provide, please don’t hesitate to contact us on 0333 123 1240.

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Over 5000 legal staff using Biscom Delivery Server for secure file exchange

James Lewis — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 10:36:50 +0000

Biscom’s recent focus on legal firms has really paid dividends having announced that the number of Biscom Delivery Server licenses sold into the legal sector passes 5000 seats. It seems that the legal marketplace has very much embraced BDS as a solution that understands the data exchange needs of law firms. This coupled with the integration options with iManage amongst other legal applications make BDS a stand out winner.

Recent customer wins in the legal sector include Latham and Watkins, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, McKenna, Long & Aldrich and Reimer & Braunstein to name a few.

If you’re a UK based legal firm or corporate legal department and would like to take a look at Biscom Delivery Server, please don’t hesitate to contact Pro2col today on 0333 123 1240.

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