Johannesburg, 12 Apr 2017
SharePoint is an excellent platform to leverage for collaboration. The problem is that there are too many requirements across an organisation, making it near impossible to keep up with all the demands for permission and flexibility. Continuous collaboration requests can quickly complicate compliance policies and security requirements. With data at rest and data in motion, and the introduction of mixed SharePoint environments, the notion of an effective perimeter is no longer part of the IT equation. Everyone is chasing an easier way to allow for secure collaboration without overburdening IT staff or creating unusable situations.
It's a balancing act between ensuring security and enabling collaboration. And it's tough to decide which is more important especially when considering the various compliance requirements or certifications that need to be maintained in these environments, says Private Protocol.
There are a number of ways organisations secure content in SharePoint today. Juggling inherited permissions, maintaining multiple user groups or creating unique silos for specific sharing scenarios all introduce management complexity and security weaknesses:
* It is hard to manage and maintain.
* It creates complicated interactions.
* Out-of-the-box security functionality is incomplete.
* More complex rule sets need to be defined by administers and then followed by users.
This is where frustration can make it difficult to have secure yet collaborative environments. Further, all of the methods mentioned provide static security only.
What Security is missing in SharePoint
Traditionally, permissions are set directly to a file. Security remains consistent and the same for every person accessing that file. So what is missing? Dynamic security.
Dynamic security is defined as the ability to apply security as users and documents change in real-time. Consider employees traveling internationally to a manufacturing facility. How can you ensure that while they're abroad sensitive content isn't exposed or extracted from their PCs while in locations that you've deemed inappropriate for those items to reside? If content does happen to leave SharePoint, how is security maintained or permissions revoked?
Using dynamic information about the user and content is the best way to ensure that content is properly secured without placing undue burden on employees or administrators. Certainly the more diverse a use case, the more difficult it is to maintain and ensure ease of use. And when these use cases multiply, it becomes more and more difficult to manage.
Applying dynamic file protection to SharePoint
To protect both users and files, dynamic security is key. Using user attributes - device type, location, security clearance, and department - combined with file attributes - location, on-premises or in the cloud, author, and specific projects - organisations can create sophisticated policies.
This is how Security Sheriff delivers dynamic security overlaid on top of any SharePoint environment. Because it's dynamic, if any of these attributes change, policies are applied in real-time.
Security Sheriff: protecting users and files
Security Sheriff offers fine-grained control of files and users in SharePoint. With Security Sheriff, real-time authentication determines:
* What a user sees when viewing and searching for files.
* Whether a user can open, export, or copy a file.
* What actions are enabled in the Microsoft ribbon.
* If a file is encrypted when saved, copied, or e-mailed.
* If a file should be e-mailed.
* If a user must view the file securely.
Learn more about Security Sheriff by listening to the Webinar Dynamically Securing SharePoint Content - Easily and Quickly. You'll hear some specific use cases and see a demo of how Security Sheriff enhances your ability to deliver security and collaboration.
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