Best Practices for Managing and Securing Shared Digital Drives

ByAdmin

Controlling Access to Centralized Files

Shared digital drives (whether local file servers or cloud services like Google Drive/SharePoint) are repositories of critical company data. If permissions are poorly managed, the risk of accidental deletion, modification, or data leakage skyrockets.

Access Control Best Practices

  • **Role-Based Access Control (RBAC):** Assign permissions based on the employee’s role, not the individual. Create groups (e.g., “Finance Team,” “Sales Admin”) and assign access permissions to the group, simplifying management.
  • **Read vs. Write:** Only grant “Write” (editing/deleting) permission to staff who absolutely require it. Most users only need “Read” access to view reference documents. This prevents accidental deletion of entire folders.
  • **Regular Review:** Audit permissions every six months or whenever an employee changes roles. Access rights should be manually reviewed and adjusted to adhere to the Principle of Least Privilege.
  • **External Sharing Limits:** Disable external sharing by default. When sharing is necessary, set expiration dates on links to prevent perpetual access by outsiders.

Never rely on a “Shared by All” folder for anything containing sensitive client or company data.

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