Use of Secure File-Sharing Platforms in Academic Enviroments
Colleges, universities and other educational institutions handle vast amounts of highly sensitive information. This includes, but is not limited to research data, student academic records, institutional financial data, and intellectual property. Additionally, some institutions can handle health records of students. For obvious reasons, ensuring the security and integrity of such forms of information is of paramount importance to any organization. Due to the frequent and voluminous sharing of vital information between and among academic entities, secure and efficient file-sharing platforms have emerged as indispensable. In this piece, we will briefly explore the essential use of secure file sharing platforms in the academic context with an emphasis on ensuring safe long-term data retention and preservation while complying with data protection laws.
Digital Age
Academic Institutions and Educational Facilities have had to adapt to a new digital age. Everything is instant, including sending and receiving important information. With this new age, comes numerous concerns about security and safety. Transmitting highly sensitive information via email, text message, and many other mediums is no longer enough to protect that information from falling into bad actors’ hands. For the most secure way to send and receive files and information, secure file sharing platforms have become a necessity. Utilizing the most advanced encryption standards, secure file sharing platforms remain the solution to adapting to the digital age in academia and education.
Protecting Students and Faculty
Protecting student and faculty data and information is a central concern for educational institutions. Toward maintaining this standard, secure file-sharing platforms employ robust encryption protocols during transmission and during the storage of data so as to greatly minimize the risk of unauthorized access and data breaches.
Providing a safe environment that promotes and allows for collaboration between and among academic entities such as institutions, faculty, and students is critical to the academic setting. Secure platforms offer real-time document sharing. Toward that end, these platforms provide controls that ensure only authorized persons are able to access files within this collaborative environment. With GiraffeDoc, a secure file sharing platform, uploads are as simple as clicking on a link that routes to our secure portal that provides end-to-end encryption. In addition to GiraffeDoc’s access controls that are user specific.
Safeguarding Research
Academic research efforts commonly result in innovative discoveries and products that can be associated with patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets, all subsumed under the rhetoric of intellectual property. Secure file-sharing platforms provide a safe space in which to share and store such intellectual property once encryption and access controls are in place. This affords the institution the capacity to maintain compliance with archival requirements surrounding data retention policies. The use of secure file-sharing platforms facilitates efficient data retrieval and contributes to the preservation of institutional knowledge while remaining fully compliant with existing data protection laws.
Academia and Compliance
It is imperative that educational institutions adhere to various data protection laws and regulations. These include the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Secure file sharing platforms, like GiraffeDoc, can provide a valuable way for institutions to share education records, and disclose and share directory information with parents. Secure file sharing platforms provide the necessary security features to meet such compliance standards. They enable universities to demonstrate due diligence in safeguarding student and faculty data thereby minimizing legal risks and maintaining a trustworthy and secure academic environment. Prioritizing the use of secure file sharing platforms empowers universities to protect sensitive information, preserve intellectual property, and uphold their commitment to data privacy and security in an ever-evolving digital landscape.
Edited by Dr. Steve Fox
