The wider availability and use of the Internet bring convenience to the table, but it also welcomes threats of different sorts.
You might have heard about security breaches and losses where businesses and people incur tremendous losses due to Internet vulnerability. Cybercriminals are waiting like hawks to attack whenever they find some weak spots.
Modern-day businesses need to share large files digitally, and in doing so, there always remains a security threat if not done through secure channels. However, not all businesses understand the gravity of the situation as to how fragile the Internet is until they learn it the hard way.
According to statistics, more than 4 billion records were exposed globally due to data breaches in mid-2019. Therefore, regulations such as PCI Data Security Standard and HIPAA guide organizations by providing a framework for storing, handling, and safeguarding their sensitive information.
Why send files through a secure channel?
Imagine your client urgently wants to see the results you have come up with, but he/she is based miles away from your place. Going digital is the best way for you at this moment. Now, would you still risk sending it through the mail if the file size is too large or sensitive?
How can you be assured of its confidentiality?
One way of achieving it is to use file-sharing services. Its benefits are:
Size is not the issue
Businesses have endless data and files ranging from graphics, video, audio, presentation documents, spreadsheets, and so on. These files can be large, and sending them by email seems frustrating.
Thanks to modern file-sharing services where file size is hardly an issue. You can easily send multi-gigabyte files without any hassle. You can avail of their free or paid version per your requirements, but they may come with size limitations while their paid versions do not.
Security blanket
Data security has become more crucial than ever due to increasing cybercrimes. Hence, in order to safeguard your intellectual property, trade secrets, marketing plans, highly sensitive information, financial information, and so on, file sharing services are there at your disposal.
They help lower the odds of a data breach through proper encryption of your files in transit and high-end password protection between both parties. They can also offer additional security levels for your mobile devices through authentication and authorization.
Track record
Another benefit of using file-sharing services is that you can keep a track record of all the shared data, including the date and time, to whom it was sent, the size of the shared file, whether it was successful, and so on.
File sharing services provide a useful data audit for people working in varied time zones and locations. Everyone in-sync with the remaining team with access to the file-sharing service can see the records entered in it to give a unified sharing experience.
Faster transmission
Sharing files using a secure file-sharing service is a reliable and fast process. You can share different types of files like graphics, video, audio, etc. no matter if they are large or small. You can easily share those files with your colleagues or clients relatively faster.
As a result, the overall work speed also accelerates with less possibility of errors. So, you can save time to perform other important duties.
Let’s explore private file-sharing solutions.
Sync
There are few excellent cloud storage companies, but we want to point out Sync as the best cloud storage. In an increasingly competitive market dominated by domestic companies like Google and Apple, it offers seamless, encrypted, and secure cloud-based file sharing.
Sync is a file storage and document collaboration platform that helps teams stay safe, secure, and connected in the cloud. It brings people, teams, and information together so people can work safely. Sync helps teams get the most out of their time together, making the most of collaborative work and tools so employees can collaborate seamlessly regardless of their physical location or device.
The Sync platform is one of the most redundant and secure as data is replicated across multiple SOC-2 (Service Organizational Control 2) certified data centers, its servers use RAID storage and automatic failover, and 99 0.9% SLA (Service Level Agreements) ensure your data is protected at all times.
With built-in compliance with geographically dispersed countries, including the US, EU/UK GDPR, and Canada, Sync is safe to use wherever your business operates and complies with data residency rules.
Features
- End-to-end encryption enables secure collaboration and communication with everyone while preventing unauthorized access.
- Real-time data backup ensures that any file can be restored anytime from any device.
- Easily integrates with most desktop and mobile applications to open, edit and share your documents.
In a nutshell, Sync is used by two million users to back up their documents and data in top-notch data centers while keeping them secure. Sync provides a safer and more reliable way to save and retrieve your data from any device and location without requiring external infrastructure. This is provided at rates hard for most other providers to match. You can start with a free account, giving you 5GB of space.
Tresorit
Tresorit is an advanced yet free file-sharing platform. You can trust it to send even your confidential files.
Using Tresorit, you can better control your files after sharing them. The secure and reliable file sharing platform lets you share files up to 5 GB and offers you benefits such as:
- End-to-end encryption
- SWISS Privacy
- GDPR Compliance
- Access logs
- Password protection
- Revoke link
- EU servers
OnionShare is one of the best file-sharing services which allows sharing your files anonymously yet with security through the Tor network. It is an open-source platform where an onion address is created, and people can visit this address through Tor Browser to access the data they wish to share.
Unlike other services such as Google Drive or email, when using OnionShare, you are not giving any access to your files to the company. As long as you keep securely sharing the anonymous web address, you and the person with whom you are sharing the file can only access the data.
Lufi
Lufi is a file hosting platform that lets you share your files easily. When you upload files on the Lufi instance, they are encrypted before being uploaded to the server. Hence, the server administrator cannot view the content of the files but can see the name, size, and type of file like video, audio, text, and so on.
You are not required to register yourself to share your files through this hosting software. However, it stores your IP address for legal reasons when you share your files, which is a normal case.
KeyBase
When it comes to security, KeyBase is considered one of the best file-sharing and messaging platforms. It secures your files through end-to-end encryption that ensures you send them to the right person. With the help of public-key cryptography, all your messages remain private, and the server administrator cannot even read any of your chats.
This platform is perfectly safe not only for businesses but also for families. You can also connect with communities like Reddit, Twitter, etc. It is available for Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, and Android.
Datash
Datash helps you send or receive a file or text through the browser between two devices. It does not require you to register or log in on its interface. All the files you share through Datash are secure because it leverages end-to-end encryption using a 1024bit public or private key.
Before sending the files, Datash encrypts data with the recipient’s public key. As a result, it ensures the files are sent to the desired destination. For sending files,
- Visit datash.co and let the recipient do the same
- Enter text or choose the files you want to share
- A recipient ID will be generated on the recipient’s device; you must enter it.
- Start sending the files by hitting the button “send securely.”
SafeNote
SafeNote is a great option for sharing temporary files anonymously. It offers a free platform where privacy, simplicity, and anonymity are focused on providing you with a reliable data-sharing experience.
You can upload your files, share their link with people with whom you want to share them, and when they download the files, you can delete them. In addition, you can also set a specific expiration time on the files so they can get deleted automatically.
When you upload a file, it generates a secure link you can copy and share with the recipient so that he/she can download the files, and then the file self-destructs.
FilePizza
FilePizza is an open-source web service helping you share your files online efficiently through WebTorrent and WebRTC. It is effortless to use and requires no file uploads to 3rd-party servers. Instead, it utilizes in-browser peer-to-peer (P2P) file transfers.
The speed, privacy, and security of FilePizza are commendable. Because using P2P technology, it involves no intermediary servers where your data can be stolen. Another great thing about this application is that it does not set any file size restrictions, unlike other tools. Hence, you can share large files with one or multiple recipients.
To start sharing files, you need to open its official website and drag the file you wish to share. Next, you could see a link you need to send to the recipient, who can use the link to fetch the file from your end.
Instant.io
Instant.io is a decent file transfer platform utilizing WebTorrent. It is an online torrent client, which lets you download torrents directly instead of using another program to perform the downloads.
It is 100% open-source and free software that works fine with Firefox, Opera, and Chrome. You can even find its source codes on GitHub.
Start sharing your files by choosing from your device, or you can also drag and drag files to start seeding. Instant.io is simple to use, and you don’t need to make an account for it. Additionally, it also supports streaming media files.
There is no file size limit, and you can monitor the uploading and downloading speed of the torrent and download them as ZIP files. It also lets you share a torrent through a URL, including an info hash or magnet link.
ToffeeShare is a safer and faster file-sharing option that always maintains a direct route from a sender to the receiver. One of the interesting aspects of this platform is that you can send files with no size limit depending upon how much your browser or device can handle.
To value the integrity and privacy of your files, ToffeeShare uses the latest industry-standard practices for data security. It currently uses DTLS 1.3, and your data remains encrypted end-to-end so that you and the recipient can only access the data.
After sharing the data, it permanently gets deleted and is no longer available on the Internet. It uses peer-to-peer (P2P) communication where there is no intermediate or third-party server. Hence, all your data is perfectly secure.
WeTransfer
One of the popular file-sharing platforms, WeTransfer, is free and requires no registration. It is known for its simplicity and ease of sharing files with people around the globe.
For sharing the files, you can select the files, and then you just need to enter the email addresses of the recipient and the sender. If you want, you can customize a message for the recipient for his/her convenience to better interpret the data or any instructions you may want to add.
DocSend
DocSend is a secure file-sharing platform that everyone can utilize. This platform is trusted by more than 12,000 companies all across the globe, including Ericsson, Gusto, BuzzFeed, and many more.
This platform makes it effortless to share, manage, and track your files. You can even protect your files with email verification and passcodes. Furthermore, you can turn off its access to take back the document control if you want.
Conclusion
Using a secure file-sharing service can be hugely advantageous for your professional, social, and personal endeavors. Anyone with a computer or mobile device with an internet connection can view the files easily and faster. So, you all need to select a secure file-sharing service and start sharing with your colleagues or clients.
If you need to send smaller files regularly, then you may consider using secure email services.
Happy sharing!