Cocoon Data Blog

Ensuring compliance and protecting your data sovereignty during COVID-19 - Cocoon Data

Written by Trent Telford | Apr 30, 2020 12:50:18 PM

The laws around social distancing during the COVID19 pandemic have dramatically changed the way we all live and work, relocating most employees from a traditional office environment to working from home.

Millions of workers around the world are now working on devices and WiFi networks that are potentially insecure, with no firewall…unwittingly opening the door to the hackers and cybercriminals who also have more time to sit at their computers at home. Which means your company is suddenly far more vulnerable to an increase in potential compliance and security breaches.

So how can you ensure you’re staying compliant and protecting your company’s data from security risks when your employees are suddenly working remotely outside the safety net of the corporate network?

A global compliance and security problem

This sudden relocation of employees to working from home has led many businesses to resort to team collaboration tools that are “a mashup of consumer and enterprise services,” explains Trent Telford, Cocoon Data Chairman & CEO.

“Currently the team collaboration segment of the market is a bit of Dropbox with a bit of Slack and a bit of Whatsapp and maybe Office365. This is rapidly becoming a global compliance and security problem … of data sovereignty, data security, policy enforcement, authorization, compliance with federal regulations and audit/oversight of user activities.”

“For Compliance Managers, Risk Directors and Chief Information Officers it’s a total compliance and security nightmare.”

Where are these security and compliance threats coming from?

“Approximately 80% of security breaches have always come from inside companies, a combination of accidental and deliberate breaches by company employees and subcontractors,” says Telford.

“But in addition to these internal breaches, Covid 19 has seen a dramatic increase in cybercrime worldwide. In the United States alone, online crimes reported to the FBI have increased by 400% since the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

According to Trent, ”It’s really a matter of not IF, but WHEN you will get breached. And then the next question is, what information can they access once they get into your system?”

A secure cloud platform with single view compliance

The technology pieces you need to protect your company data and ensure compliance when working remotely from home includes cloud sovereignty, file sharing, geo-fencing, alerts and encryption. And most importantly, these all need to be on a secure cloud platform that does all of these things seamlessly, with single view compliance.

Now, thanks to Cocoon Data’s Cocoon Data, it’s still possible to secure your data and enforce compliance with your staff working remotely from home.

Cocoon Data is a highly secure, encrypted file storage and collaboration system that has been designed specifically to allow controlled, authorized access to external as well as internal parties.

Unlike any other file storage and collaboration systems on the market, Cocoon Data doesn’t encrypt data at the disc. Instead, by giving every single file its own unique encryption from the moment you upload a file at the user’s device, Cocoon Data provides government and military grade solutions for any industry with sensitive data…

…especially when their staff are working remotely from home.

Securing data and enforcing compliance in the right way

“How Cocoon Data enforces policy is what really makes our system so uniquely secure,” explains Telford. “Cocoon approaches security and compliance from a government background instead of a consumer background, which is where most of the team collaboration segment of the market comes from.”

“As soon as files are uploaded in Cocoon Data you can also apply the policy rules of who can access each individual file. Cocoon Data are the only ones who do this, stitching together encryption, policy and identity at the core of Cocoon Data.”

“For example, if an employee accidentally shares a file to 5 people but only 4 of them have permission to access that file, the file is still secure because the access policy has been enforced through the encryption.”

Cocoon Data also allows you to enforce the geographical and physical limitations that can be so important with compliance. The unique encryption of every file means you can’t open a file unless you are at a certain geographical location or physical address.”

“For hackers it has always been easier to hack a defence contractor rather than defence force, but by approaching data security at the starting point, which is the user device, rather than hardening the devices where information is stored, Cocoon Data makes information harder to steal or misuse…even from contractors who sit outside your organization”

“So even if your staff get hacked through their home wifi or accidently share confidential files, your information will always stay secure and your company will remain compliant because the individual encryption of every single file keeps them secure, even if they fall into the wrong hands.”

Government and military grade solutions for any industry with sensitive data

Led by a team of tech industry veterans with backgrounds in government and defense, Cocoon Data provides government and military grade solutions for any size business that holds sensitive or personal data.

“Because of our backgrounds in government and defense, we are trusted by governments and enterprises around the world,” explains Telford.

“Cocoon Data specialise in regulated industries including defence, government, banking, medical, pharmaceutical, finance, universities, education, and any business that requires share in cloud security and compliance.”

“We supply cloud solutions to any industry with sensitive data….

…and with so many people now working from home, it’s now more important than ever to ensure your staff are able to handle your data in a secure and compliant fashion.”