What is File Security? Importance & Best Practices

What Is File Security?

File security refers to the measures taken to protect files from unauthorized access, loss, theft, or corruption. It involves safeguarding the integrity and confidentiality of files stored across various systems, including hybrid cloud environments. File security typically involves a combination of encryption, access control mechanisms, and authentication techniques to ensure that only authorized entities can access the files and modify them as required. It may also involve measures to prevent viruses, malware, or other cybersecurity threats. Establishing a robust file security strategy is essential for complying with the relevant data privacy regulations.

Why Is File Security Important?

File security is important for the following reasons:

Protection against unauthorized access: File security helps to prevent unauthorized individuals or entities from accessing sensitive or confidential information. This is particularly essential when it comes to personal or financial data, trade secrets, intellectual property, or any other valuable information.

Prevention of data breaches: File security measures help to minimize the risk of data breaches, which can result in significant financial losses, reputation damage, and legal repercussions. Data breaches can occur through various means such as hacking, phishing, malware, or physical theft, and file security measures help to mitigate these risks.

Compliance with regulations: Many industries have specific regulations and standards regarding the handling and protection of data, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). File security ensures adherence to these regulations and protects organizations from potential fines or other legal repercussions.

Safeguarding against data loss or destruction: File security includes backup and recovery mechanisms, which are crucial for protecting against accidental or intentional data loss or destruction. This could be due to hardware failures, natural disasters, human error, or malicious activities.

Preserving business continuity: Effective file security practices contribute to maintaining business continuity. By safeguarding critical files and systems, organizations can prevent disruptions caused by security incidents, restore operations quickly in case of an incident, and minimize the impact on employees, customers, and business operations.

File Security Best Practices

While there are many ways to improve data security, below is a list of the most notable best practices that relate specifically to safeguarding sensitive files within your environment, whether on-premise or cloud-based.

Permission management: Improve file security by adhering to the principle of least privilege (POLP), ensuring that only necessary individuals have access to specific files. Additionally, use access controls to restrict actions such as deleting or copying sensitive files, providing an extra layer of security.

Secure file sharing methods: Enhance the security of file sharing methods by carefully evaluating potential channels for transferring files and implementing measures to block unauthorized devices, such as personal USB drives. Use secure file transfer protocols (e.g., SFTP or HTTPS) when transferring files over networks, and avoid using unsecured methods like plain FTP or unencrypted email attachments. Consider using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) when connecting to your network remotely. A VPN establishes a secure connection between a user’s device and a remote server, encrypting all data transmitted through the network.

File server auditing: It is crucially important to actively monitor file access and address any security vulnerabilities that may arise. This entails closely monitoring multiple failed access attempts, bulk file modifications, and other suspicious events, such as deletions or renaming, which could indicate a ransomware attack.

Authentication and authorization: Enforce strict authentication and authorization protocols by implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA) and restricting open access to employees and partners unless it is necessary for their roles and responsibilities. MFA typically requires a second verification method, such as a code sent to a mobile device, in addition to a password.

File storage analysis: Conduct thorough file storage analysis to identify the specific locations of critical files. Regularly review and remove stale or unused files to minimize the potential for permission misuse or unnecessary access.

Encryption of sensitive files: Use encryption tools to protect sensitive files. Numerous software applications provide encryption capabilities, such as VeraCrypt, BitLocker, and FileVault. These tools encrypt entire disks or specific files and folders. Cloud storage services often provide encryption options to protect files stored in the cloud. However, to be extra secure, you should also use client-side encryption, where files are encrypted locally before being uploaded.

Challenges With File Security in The Cloud

According to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2023, 82% of data breaches involve data stored in the cloud. This highlights the need for organizations to find solutions that can provide visibility and security across hybrid environments, protecting data as it moves between different clouds, databases, apps, and services. Securing cloud data files can be challenging due to the remote storage and reliance on third-party service providers. To address these challenges, it is important to choose a reputable provider with strong security measures in place. Additionally, using a solution that can discover, classify and monitor sensitive files across multiple cloud platforms will significantly improve file security in cloud environments.

File Security vs Data Security

File security refers specifically to the protection of individual files, such as documents, images, or videos, from unauthorized access or alteration. Data security, on the other hand, encompasses a broader scope. It involves safeguarding all types of data within an organization, including files, databases, metadata, and other forms of structured or unstructured information. Data security not only includes protection against unauthorized access or modification, but also concentrates on the availability and reliability of data. You could think of file security as a subset of data security, as it focuses on securing individual files, whereas data security deals with protecting all data assets within an organization.

How Lepide Helps with File Security

The Lepide Data Security Platform helps protect sensitive files by detecting suspicious file activity across your IT environment, including both on-premise and cloud-based environments. It includes features such as data discovery and classification, privileged access management, and Active Directory cleanup. Lepide uses advanced machine learning to analyze user behavior and provide insights that will aid in conducting forensic analysis after a security incident. To be more precise, Lepide can help with file security in the following ways:

Enhanced monitoring: Lepide provides real-time monitoring of file activities. It can track user actions such as file access, modification, deletion, and transfer, and log detailed information about each event.

User accountability: Each time a file is accessed or modified it is recorded and associated with a specific user, allowing administrators to attribute responsibility for any security breaches or policy violations.

Threshold alerting: The Lepide platform allows for threshold alerting, where file events that match a pre-defined threshold condition trigger an alert or an automated response. For example, when a user accesses a large number of files in a short time, a custom script can be executed which may disable a specific account or process, change the firewall settings or shut down the relevant systems.

File Integrity Monitoring: Lepide provides file integrity monitoring capabilities that track changes to files at the binary level. This ensures that critical system or configuration files are not tampered with or modified without proper authorization. Any unauthorized changes are immediately flagged for investigation.

If you’d like to see how the Lepide Data Security Platform can help to safeguard your sensitive files, schedule a demo with one of our engineers.