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The management at work are asking, \"How can we send files easily and safely to

ID: 662030 • Letter: T

Question

The management at work are asking, "How can we send files easily and safely to each other?", arguing that:

- Putting attachments in email is not safe. They want to send links instead
- They want to refer to a central, latest version of a file, rather than sending a copy
- They want to be able to read the file both on laptops and iPads
- They want to share files with people outside the company

The problem is:

- Sending links (to a shared network drive) is not straight forward in Microsoft Office. You need OneDrive for this, and sometimes you don't get the file:// prefix. Also, links won't work on Macs.
- iPads don't have access to the shared network drive. You could use http, but how do you refer to this while working from Office? Plus, you don't want to expose your network drive on the Internet.
- We can't grant external people access to our systems

A possible solution is to use Sharepoint, but this is a big step. Same goes for Google Drive. It would take forever to convert our document base.

What is the recommended approach? Are we stuck with attachments? Does mail encryption or file passwords make any major difference as far as security goes?

Explanation / Answer

There is no obvious difference in transporting malware directly as attachment or let the user retrieve it by visiting a link within the mail. But it might make a difference depending on which other security policies and tools are in use in your company:

In summary: with the right security concept behind it such a policy might actually make sense.