Dropbox for Enterprise: Is it a Secure File Sharing Solution?

For the last several years, Dropbox has been one of the most popular file sharing users for consumers all over the world.

The engineers of Dropbox have designed a solution that is incredibly powerful, allowing you to quickly archive important files to the Internet and share large bits of data with other people with the click of a button.

The keyword here, obviously, is "consumer." Whereas Dropbox may be a great way to share a recent photo or video with your friend, it is woefully inefficient (and downright dangerous) as file sharing for enterprise business customers for a wide range of different reasons.

Why DropBox is Not The Best Solution for Enterprise Business

Compliance

One of the major reasons why an enterprise business should never use Dropbox has to do with compliance. Depending on your industry, you're probably subject to a wide range of rules and regulations regarding how, where and when customer information can be shared on the Internet. If you're a healthcare professional, for example, the simple act of uploading a client document to Dropbox could put you on the receiving end of a HIPAA violation and an associated fine that could bring your business to its knees.

Username and Password Inefficiencies

Another reason why Dropbox isn't an ideal solution for your enterprise business is one of security. Dropbox accounts are governed by a username and password, but provide very little else in the way of security. All it would take is someone to either guess or learn your username and password to expose every last document in your Dropbox account to harm.

Lack of Control

Dropbox is first and foremost a sync tool to provide access to your own files on more than one of your own devices, like iPads or laptops. In other words, you are sharing files with yourself! You can also share a link to a file with a non-Dropbox user, but what prevents them from sending the link to someone else? Sharing folders instead of files is equally dangerous. 400 million consumers reportedly use Dropbox. Encouraging employees to use Dropbox opens your business to the risk that they will use one Dropbox account for both personal and business file sharing. This is never a good thing.

With a secure file sharing option like FTP, you are not mixing business files with personal files. You can create individual FTP accounts for all of your employees and customers and govern access based on those qualifiers. If an employee doesn't need access to every directory on a server, you don't have to give them that level of permission. This not only lets you keep vital information safe from outside threats, but also protects it against misuse from within your own organization at the same time.

These are just a few of the many reasons why Dropbox is absolutely not a secure file sharing for enterprise business option, nor should it ever be treated as such. If you want to leverage all of the benefits of file sharing with none of the risk, you need to seriously consider options like secure FTP and providers like FTP Today.

Are you an FTP Admin?

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