2020 was marked by a surge in cyber security threats, which inspired ProofEasy to lay its origin. Even the most sophisticated enterprise platforms witnessed targeted security breaches. Amidst all of this chaos, ensuring the security of enterprise data turned into a daunting task.
The problem arises mainly while trying to secure all the proprietary data prevalent with third-party interactions.
For instance, if your competitors get access to your vendor invoices, they can get a good idea about your supply chain and margins. Anyone with enough capital and a logistics system can take advantage of this information.
So, the question remains – how can you begin securing the most critical data at your firm? The answer lies in understanding the entire landscape of the risks for your documents & data.
Landscape of Data Management Across Industries in 2021
1. Remote working has increased the probability of tangential but damaging data breaches.
A significant challenge for most businesses was to immediately expand the technology stack to accommodate remote working. Since speed was essential, security took a back seat in many cases and left more enterprises exposed to targeted attacks.
Several businesses have started building their defences against such acts now but only after having born the expenses.
2. Due-diligence has become a more elongated process with the gap between data aggregators, data centres, and data consumers.
In most law firms, the associates have the burden of aggregating, processing, and analysing the data for building a case. The data, both primary and secondary, is then stored in the law firm’s database. And eventually, it is consumed by the senior litigators or partners who use it for executing a case strategy.
The data is often sensitive and carries information on a company’s operations, dealings, and even principal knowledge with every touchpoint in the system, the risk of a breach increases. And with that, the firm has to be more careful while conducting due-diligence, which adds to the cost or reduces the margins.
3. Immediate technology integrations are not easy for firms relying on legacy systems.
Most law firms and other businesses in the services industry did not change their enterprise platforms for years. They were dependent on human capital, and till it was available in abundance and quality, their business flourished.
Now, most of the firms are seeing that legacy systems are hindering productivity. As firms try to adopt new technology, they are facing an increasing number of challenges with integrations.
4. Several law firms are running the risk of business continuity hindrances.
The firms that have chosen not to upgrade their technology stack and keep workflow automation or federated systems out of their processes face severe risks to both business continuity and productivity.
Legacy systems often do not have enough post-sales services available. At the same time, they are running the risk of breaking down more frequently.
With more systemic processes like physical documentation, the firms have to pay more per unit of excess resource produced, leading to both hindrances for growth and quick service delivery.
5. GDPR and Cybersecurity have become significant issues for major law firms working with third-party and client data.
While cybersecurity has emerged as a broad theme, GPDR has had a significant influence on most businesses.
The challenge with GDPR is that even if a firm is not present in a European jurisdiction but is catering to European customers, it has to comply with the updated GDPR laws. This has increased the compliance and operational costs for offshore law firms with significant outsourcing efficiencies for back-office processing and research.
FinCEN Files Leak: If a Top USA Agency is Not Entirely Secure, Can Your Enterprise Be?
2020 is primarily marked as the year of the pandemic. By September of the year, it also got labelled as the year of data-leak from a top USA government agency. FinCEN is the abbreviation for the USA Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
Under this regime, banks can independently file reports or memorandums of suspicion, if they believe one of their clients might be engaged in laundering or other financial crimes. The matter is then escalated within the government.
FinCEN leak resulted in a leak of over 2500 documents that formed correspondence between banks and the USA government for over 17 years.
The documents were leaked to a global media network and included suspicion reports filed against Russian oligarchs and other banks’ major customers. Several firms like HSBC, JP Morgan, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, and UAE Central Bank were the firms that got affected by the leak.
This was correspondence between banks and the government, but the authorities believe it could have compromised the USA national security and even trade secrets of some businesses. If the information were to be leaked in the wrong hands, the result could have been more catastrophic.
The question remains – how can a business save itself from such leaks?
I would add a case study here on how firms have been implicated by the above (again it can be short)
ProofEasy Blockchain Secures Sensitive Enterprise Data without Losing Accessibility
A potential solution is to store each document in a secret locker in some old office building corner. But that creates challenges against accessibility. Instead, blockchain-enabled documentation can provide safe and accessible document processing.
Here is how it can help your business:
1. Unified document storage and traceable access.
Suppose you store all the documents on one digital platform. The platform is entirely secure since each document has a unique QR Code and a Blockchain ID that can be used to access it and shows whether the document has tampered or not.
With this one update in your processes, you have made your enterprise data more secure and accessible.
2. Blockchain can ensure document integrity and expedite due-diligence processes.
Documents on a blockchain platform like ProofEasy have a unique Blockchain ID. This way, your clients and external users can ensure the document they are consuming is the original one.
Each time they access the document, the original document is rendered. If the Blockchain ID does not match, tampering and leaks can be easily tracked.
It will become easier for your auditors and future private investors to conduct due diligence on your operations with such processes in place.
3. Cloud-based integrations do not require new workflows.
Platforms like ProofEasy do not need any additional workflows. As far as you have a document that requires safe storage with accessibility, you can use ProofEasy with your existing systems.
Since you are shifting from a physical to a digital document management system, you can also expect to see an uptick in productivity, that comes with increased accessibility.
4. Federated platforms can also act as backups for existing physical documents.
Finally, all your essential documents are stored in one place with a Blockchain-empowered security system that makes your documents practically tamper-proof.
This federated storage can also provide you with backup for crucial business data and ensure business continuity, even if your cloud platform or enterprise systems face downtime.
In Conclusion
Remote working may continue in the near future. Due-diligence will be conducted even in the near term. Not upgrading your enterprise technology can hinder productivity, and upgrading it can increase integration costs.
And on top of these, you have to be compliant with GDPR and other similar data privacy laws.
ProofEasy can be the singular solution for each one of these challenges. With the blockchain-powered platform that provides security and accessibility round the clock, you can share documents with more confidence and maintain each document’s integrity.
To know more about how ProofEasy can be a part of your firm’s efforts to secure its enterprise data, click her