No matter what your company does, you still have ideas and important documentation that needs to be protected. Usually, such data is stored in offices, but if you work online, you need to think about reliable virtual storage. You don't want your competitors to take advantage of your development and leave you nothing. Online data rooms can help you, so we'll talk about their functions, advantages, and importance.
Definition and significance
Virtual data room, or VDR, is closed storage that only selected individuals have access to. It allows you to control the dissemination of information and ensures a reliable exchange without the intervention of third parties. The tool makes the process of concluding deals safe. as your potential partners will not be able to steal your intellectual property thanks to reliable protection.
Dataroom software is necessary in the following cases:
1. Agreements between the parties for which it is necessary to review specific documentation.
2. Conducting financial and legal due diligence in a safe and convenient format.
3. Secure access to company documents for auditors, lawyers, regulators and other stakeholders.
4. Release of documents before important events. For example, if you need to distribute copies of one document to a group of people.
5. Protecting developments and intellectual property (startups, drawings, important developments, documentation, etc.).
Ways to protect your data and ideas
Classic VDRs offer a standard set of tools such as document browsing, downloading, sending to print, sharing, etc. File protection inside virtual data rooms is done by delimiting user rights, managing document lifetimes, and logging events. But the question is how to be sure that information will not leak out, and how to identify the culprit in case of leakage.
It is possible to put, for example, watermarks on documents when exchanging with counterparties. But it should be noted that watermarks can be easily removed in a graphics editor, plus they often interfere with the reading of information. There is also a protective grid, which is superimposed on the text when you read it. But here the problem is the same - reduced readability and user-friendliness.
Another way of protection, based on the latest technology, is invisible marking. Unlike the previously mentioned options, this one takes a different approach. Changes occur at the text level but remain unrecognizable to the naked eye. Through the shifts that occur in the document, each copy is personalized. This way, in the event of a leak, it will be easy to identify who exactly is the source of the leak.
The technology works as follows: each time a user interacts with a document (opens it, downloads it, prints it, sends it by post, etc.), they get a personalized marked copy. The copy is visually indistinguishable from the original, the markings are not visible to the naked eye and can only be identified using a forensic tool. In addition to the invisible marking the document is also assigned attributes: employee ID, time, date, IP, MAC, location etc.
How to choose the right VDR service provider?
You can find the secure VDR list at https://dataroom-rating.us/ipo-data-room/. But before that, it's important to define your company's goals and needs. Determine how you will use the room and how it should improve your organization. It's also important to assess the abilities of potential users and their familiarity with modern technology. For example, for inexperienced users, it's better to choose a data room with a simple and intuitive interface. Discuss with your team how much storage you need, your budget, who will use the storage, etc. The more issues you discuss, the better.
We can identify several online data rooms that have proven themselves and have been recognized by various companies:
1. Intralinks: The room is suitable for large companies that need to store huge amounts of information. This makes the subscription more expensive than competitors, but the functionality is worth it.
2. iDeals: The company is known for its attention to customer feedback. You will receive round-the-clock support and a FAQ section to resolve the issue and get back to work as soon as possible.
3. Box: Here you will find all the necessary functions for storing and sharing data. The tool is ideal for daily operations and small transactions. Box data room also provides 256-bit AES encryption and two-factor authentication to ensure a high level of security for sensitive data. The interface is available in multiple languages to provide a user-friendly experience for companies around the world.
Conclusion:
Using a virtual data room is an effective tool for storing and sharing documents with internal and external agents. The creation of folders, delimitation of access rights and other functional features of VDRs allow organizing comfortable collaborative workflow. However, cloud storage itself and the files it contains require the protection, which can be ensured by invisible document marking. It will protect your ideas from leakage and theft.
So, online data room offers some advantages:
● Ease of uploading files into the system and sorting them into folders;
● Clear functionality for downloading documents and viewing them in the system;
● Creation of joint workspaces and assignment of different levels of roles for participants;
● Differentiation of access rights to the documents and restriction of several actions with the documents (e.g., prohibiting printing or downloading from the space);
● The possibility of sharing files and folders with colleagues or counterparties through generated links with different restrictions (e.g. validity period of the link);
● User-friendly interface.
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