Document Security

Documents, documents everywhere. Electronic files such as Word documents, PDF documents and spreadsheets not only outline the past — they are also the lifeblood of most organizations. No matter what the function, practically everyone in every business creates and stores electronic documents. They are something we all have in common, and they are the essence of why we use computers. More importantly, the contents of these documents and how they are being managed are placing a lot of sensitive information and businesses at risk.

The mere existence of electronic documents is not a bad thing. The problem starts when people do not realize what can (and often does) happen to the information in their documents. Think about it — outside of more specific data stored on your organization’s database servers, electronic documents contain pretty much anything and everything related to your business. They often house information about all of your employees and customers as well.
From intellectual property to sensitive details on your employees, to confidential customer records, there is a lot of information you cannot afford to lose or have compromised. But interestingly, this information security issue is not on the radar of the people creating these files. And more alarming, it is typically off the radar for network administrators and information security managers. That does not reduce its importance.